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171928 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almquist%20shell | Almquist shell | Almquist shell (also known as A Shell, ash and sh) is a lightweight Unix shell originally written by Kenneth Almquist in the late 1980s. Initially a clone of the System V.4 variant of the Bourne shell, it replaced the original Bourne shell in the BSD versions of Unix released in the early 1990s.
History
ash was first released via a posting to the Usenet news group, approved and moderated by Rich Salz on 30 May 1989. It was described as "a reimplementation of the System V shell [with] most features of that shell, plus some additions".
Fast, small, and virtually compatible with the POSIX standard's specification of the Unix shell, ash did not provide line editing or command history mechanisms, because Almquist felt that such functionality should be moved into the terminal driver. However, current variants support it.
The following is extracted from the ash package information from Slackware v14:
Myriad forks have been produced from the original ash release. These derivatives of ash are installed as the default shell (/bin/sh) on FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, MINIX, and in some Linux distributions. MINIX 3.2 used the original ash version, whose test feature differed from POSIX. That version of the shell was replaced in MINIX 3.3. Android used ash until Android 4.0, at which point it switched to mksh.
Dash
In 1997 Herbert Xu ported ash from NetBSD to Debian Linux. In September 2002, with release 0.4.1, this port was renamed to Dash (Debian Almquist shell). Xu's main priorities are POSIX conformance and slim implementation.
Like its predecessor, Dash implements support for neither internationalization and localization nor multi-byte character encoding (both required in POSIX). Line editing and history support based on GNU Readline is optional ().
Adoption in Debian and Ubuntu
Because of its slimness, Ubuntu decided to adopt Dash as the default /bin/sh in 2006. The reason for using Dash is faster shell script execution, especially during startup of the operating system, compared to previous versions of Debian and Ubuntu that used Bash for this purpose, although Bash is still the default login shell for interactive use. Dash became the default /bin/sh in Ubuntu starting with the 6.10 release in October 2006. Dash replaced Bash and became the default /bin/sh in Debian 6 (Squeeze).
A result of the shift is that many shell scripts were found making use of Bash-specific functionalities ("bashisms") without properly declaring it in the shebang line. The problem was first spotted in Ubuntu and the Ubuntu maintainers decided to make all the scripts comply with the POSIX standard. The changes were later upstreamed to Debian, which soon adopted Dash as its default too. As a result, all scripts in Debian and Ubuntu are guaranteed to be POSIX-compliant, save for the extensions merged into Dash for convenience (, , ). A similar transition has happened in Slackware Linux, although their version of is only partially based on Dash.
Embedded Linux
Ash (mainly the Dash fork) is also fairly popular in embedded Linux systems. Dash version 0.3.8-5 was incorporated into BusyBox, the catch-all executable often employed in this area, and is used in distributions like DSLinux, Alpine Linux, Tiny Core Linux and Linux-based router firmware such as OpenWrt, Tomato and DD-WRT.
See also
Comparison of computer shells
References
External links
1989 software
Cross-platform software
Scripting languages
Text-oriented programming languages
Unix shells |
8116886 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Revolutionaries | The Revolutionaries | The Revolutionaries (sometimes known as "Revolutionaires") was a Jamaican reggae band.
Career
Set up in 1975 as the house band of the Channel One Studios owned by Joseph Hoo Kim, The Revolutionaries with Sly Dunbar on drums and Bertram "Ranchie" McLean on bass, created the new "rockers" style that would change the whole Jamaican sound (from roots reggae to rockers, and be imitated in all other productions). Beside Sly, many musicians played in the band: Robbie Shakespeare on bass, JoJo Hookim, Bertram McLean, and Radcliffe "Dougie" Bryan on guitar, Ossie Hibbert, Errol "Tarzan" Nelson, Robert Lyn or Ansel Collins on keyboards, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson, Noel "Scully" Simms on percussion, Tommy McCook, Herman Marquis on saxophone, Bobby Ellis on trumpet and Vin Gordon on trombone.
In 1976, they recorded a track named after Kunta Kinte. This would become one of reggae music's most recognisable riddims which for many years was only played by selected sound systems on dubplate.
The band played on numerous dub albums and recorded as a backing band for artists like B.B. Seaton, Black Uhuru, Culture, Prince Alla, Leroy Smart, Gregory Isaacs, John Holt, The Heptones, Mighty Diamonds, I-Roy, Tapper Zukie, Trinity, U Brown, Errol Scorcher, Serge Gainsbourg among others.
Discography
The Revolutionaries
Revival Dub Roots Now - 1976 - Well Charge
Revolutionary Sounds - 1976 - Channel One/Well Charge
Sounds Vol 2 - 1979 - Ballistic
Vital Dub Well Charged - 1976 - Virgin
Dread At The Controls - 1978 - Hawkeye
Dub Expression - 1978 - High Note
Earthquake Dub - 1978 - Joe Gibbs
Jonkanoo Dub - 1978 - Cha Cha
Reaction In Dub - 1978 - Cha Cha
Sentimental Dub - 1978 - Germain
Top Ranking Dub - 1978 - Rootsman
Burning Dub - 1979 - Burning Vibrations
Dub Out Her Blouse & Skirt - 1979 - Germain
Dutch Man Dub - 1979 - Burning Vibrations
Goldmine Dub - 1979 - Greensleeves
Outlaw Dub - 1979 - Trojan
Dawn Of Creation - Sagittarius
Dub Plate Specials At Channel One - Jamaican Recordings
Green Bay Dub - 1979 - Burning Vibrations
Medley Dub - High Note
Phase One Dubwise Vol 1 & 2 - Sprint
Satta Dub Strictly Roots - Well Charge
Dial M For Murder In Dub Style - 1980 - Express
I Came, I Saw, I Conquered - 1980 - Channel One
Compilations
Channel One - Maxfield Avenue Breakdown - Dub & Instrumentals - 1974-1979 - Pressure Sounds (2000)
Revival - 1973-1976 - Cha Cha (1982)
Roots Man Dub - 1979 - GG's
Channel One Revisited Dub - Top Beat (1995)
Macca Rootsman Dub - Jamaican Gold (1994)
The Rough Guide to Dub - World Music Network (2005)
With The Aggrovators
Agrovators Meets The Revolutioners At Channel One Studios - 1977 - Third World
Rockers Almighty Dub (Dubwise, Rockers, Bass & Drums) - 1979 - Clocktower
Agrovators Meet Revolutionaries Part II - Micron
Others
Kunta Kinte - 1976 - Channel One
Guerilla Dub - 1978 - Burning Sounds
The Revolutionaries & We The People Band - Revolutionary Dub - 1976 - Trenchtown
Bobby Ellis And The Professionals Meet The Revolutionaries - Black Unity - 1977 - Third World
Derrick Harriott & The Revolutionaries - Reggae Chart Busters Seventies Style - 1977 - Crystal
Sly & The Revolutionaries - Don't Underestimate The Force, The Force Is Within You - 1977 - J&L
Sly & The Revolutionaries - Go Deh Wid Riddim - 1977 - Crystal
Sly & The Revolutionaries With Jah Thomas - Black Ash Dub - 1980 - Trojan
Errol Scorcher & The Revolutionaries - Rasta Fire (A Channel One Experience) - 1978 - Ballistic
Ossie Hibbert & The Revolutionaries - Satisfaction In Dub - 1978 - Live & Love
Pancho Alphonso & The Revolutionaries - Never Get To Zion - 1978 - Trojan
References
External links
Roots Archives
Discography at Discogs
1975 establishments in Jamaica
1980s disestablishments in Jamaica
Jamaican reggae musical groups
Jamaican backing bands
Musical groups established in 1975
Musical groups disestablished in the 1980s
Greensleeves Records artists
Trojan Records artists |
60577749 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet%20censorship%20and%20surveillance%20in%20Asia | Internet censorship and surveillance in Asia | This list of Internet censorship and surveillance in Asia provides information on the types and levels of Internet censorship and surveillance that is occurring in countries in Asia.
Detailed country by country information on Internet censorship and surveillance is provided in the Freedom on the Net reports from Freedom House, by the OpenNet Initiative, by Reporters Without Borders, and in the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices from the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. The ratings produced by several of these organizations are summarized below as well as in the Censorship by country article.
Classifications
The level of Internet censorship and surveillance in a country is classified in one of the four categories: pervasive, substantial, selective, and little or no censorship or surveillance. The classifications are based on the classifications and ratings from the Freedom on the Net reports by Freedom House supplemented with information from the OpenNet Initiative (ONI), Reporters Without Borders (RWB), and the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Pervasive censorship or surveillance: A country is classified as engaged in pervasive censorship or surveillance when it often censors political, social, and other content, is engaged in mass surveillance of the Internet, and retaliates against citizens who circumvent censorship or surveillance with imprisonment or other sanctions. A country is included in the "pervasive" category when it:
is rated as "not free" with a total score of 71 to 100 in the Freedom on the Net (FOTN) report from Freedom House,
is rated "not free" in FOTN or is not rated in FOTN and
is included on the "Internet enemies" list from Reporters Without Borders, or
when the OpenNet Initiative categorizes the level of Internet filtering as pervasive in any of the four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) for which they test.
Substantial censorship or surveillance: Countries included in this classification are engaged in substantial Internet censorship and surveillance. This includes countries where a number of categories are subject to a medium level of filtering or many categories are subject to a low level of filtering. A country is included in the "substantial" category when it:
is not included in the "pervasive" category, and
is rated as "not free" in the Freedom on the Net (FOTN) report from Freedom House, or
is rated "partly free" or is not rated in FOTN, and
is included on the "Internet enemies" list from Reporters Without Borders, or
when the OpenNet Initiative categorizes the level of Internet filtering as pervasive or substantial in any of the four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) for which they test.
Selective censorship or surveillance: Countries included in this classification were found to practice selective Internet censorship and surveillance. This includes countries where a small number of specific sites are blocked or censorship targets a small number of categories or issues. A country is included in the "selective" category when it:
is not included in the "pervasive" or "substantial" categories, and
is rated as "partly free" in the Freedom on the Net (FOTN) report from Freedom House, or
is included on the "Internet enemies" list from Reporters Without Borders, or
is not rated in FOTN and the OpenNet Initiative categorizes the level of Internet filtering as selective in any of the four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) for which they test.
Little or no censorship or surveillance: A country is included in the "little or no censorship or surveillance" category when it is not included in the "pervasive", "substantial" or "selective" categories.
This classification includes countries that are listed as "free" on the Freedom on the Net list from Freedom House, are not listed as "Enemies of the Internet" by Reporters Without Borders (RWB), and for which no evidence of Internet filtering was found by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) in any of the four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) for which they test. Other controls such as voluntary filtering, self-censorship, and other types of public or private action to limit child pornography, hate speech, defamation, or theft of intellectual property often exist. The various nation sections, below, include ratings by ONI, RWB, etc.
Pervasive censorship or surveillance
Bahrain
Rated "not free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 62), 2012 (score 71), 2013 (score 72), 2014 (score 74), 2015 (score 72), 2016 (score 71), 2017 (score 72), and 2018 (score 71).
Listed as pervasive in the political and social areas, as substantial in Internet tools, and as selective in conflict/security by ONI in August 2009.
Listed as an Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2012.
Listed as a State Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2013 for involvement in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights.
Bahrain enforces an effective news blackout using an array of repressive measures, including keeping the international media away, harassing human rights activists, arresting bloggers and other online activists (one of whom died in detention), prosecuting free speech activists, and disrupting communications, especially during major demonstrations.
On 5 January 2009 the Ministry of Culture and Information issued an order (Resolution No 1 of 2009) pursuant to the Telecommunications Law and Press and Publications Law of Bahrain that regulates the blocking and unblocking of websites. This resolution requires all ISPs – among other things – to procure and install a website blocking software solution chosen by the Ministry. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority ("TRA") assisted the Ministry of Culture and Information in the execution of the said Resolution by coordinating the procurement of the unified website blocking software solution. This software solution is operated solely by the Ministry of Information and Culture and neither the TRA nor ISPs have any control over sites that are blocked or unblocked.
China
Rated "not free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2009 (score 79), 2011 (score 83), 2012 (score 85), 2013 (score 86), 2014 (score 87), 2015 (score 88), 2016 (score 88), 2017 (score 87), and 2018 (score 88).
Listed as pervasive in the political and conflict/security areas and as substantial in social and Internet tools by ONI in June 2009 and August 2012.
Listed as an Enemy of the Internet by RWB since 2008.
Listed as a State Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2013 for involvement in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights.
Internet censorship in China is among the most stringent in the world. The government blocks Web sites that discuss Tibetan independence and the Dalai Lama, Taiwan independence, police brutality, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, freedom of speech, pornography, some international news sources and propaganda outlets (such as the VOA), certain religious movements (such as Falun Gong), and many blogging websites. At the end of 2007 51 cyber dissidents were reportedly imprisoned in China for their online postings. According to Human Rights Watch, in China the government also continues to violate domestic and international legal guarantees of freedom of press and expression by restricting bloggers, journalists, and an estimated more than 500 million Internet users. The government requires Internet search firms and state media to censor issues deemed officially “sensitive", and blocks access to foreign websites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. However, the rise of Chinese online social networks—in particularly Sina's Weibo, which has 200 million users—has created a new platform for citizens to express opinions and to challenge official limitations on freedom of speech despite intense scrutiny by China's censors.
Iran
Rated "not free" in the Freedom on the Net report from Freedom House in 2009 (76 score), 2011 (89 score), 2012 (90 score), 2013 (91 score), 2014 (89 score), 2015 (87 score), 2016 (score 87), 2017 (score 85), and 2018 (score 85).
Listed as pervasive in the political, social, and Internet tools areas and as substantial in conflict/security by ONI in June 2009.
Listed as an Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2011.
Listed as a State Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2013 for involvement in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights.
The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to expand and consolidate its technical filtering system, which is among the most extensive in the world. A centralized system for Internet filtering has been implemented that augments the filtering conducted at the Internet service provider (ISP) level. Filtering targets content critical of the government, religion, pornographic websites, political blogs, and women's rights websites, weblogs, and online magazines. Bloggers in Iran have been imprisoned for their Internet activities. The Iranian government temporarily blocked access, between 12 May 2006 and January 2009, to video-upload sites such as YouTube.com. Flickr, which was blocked for almost the same amount of time was opened in February 2009. But after 2009 election protests YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and many more websites were blocked indefinitely.
Kuwait
Listed as pervasive in the social and Internet tools areas and as selective in political and conflict/security by ONI in June 2009.
The primary target of Internet filtering is pornography and, to a lesser extent, gay and lesbian content. The Kuwait Ministry of Communication regulates ISPs, making them block pornographic, anti-religion, anti-tradition, and anti-security websites. Both private ISPs and the government take actions to filter the Internet.
The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) operates the Domain Name System in Kuwait and does not register domain names which are "injurious to public order or to public sensibilities or otherwise do not comply with the laws of Kuwait". VoIP is legal in Kuwait, and Zain, one of the mobile operators, started testing VoLTE in Kuwait.
North Korea
Listed as an Internet enemy by RWB in 2011.
Not categorized by ONI due to lack of data.
North Korea is cut off from the Internet, much as it is from other areas with respect to the world. Only a few hundred thousand citizens in North Korea, representing about 4% of the total population, have access to the Internet, which is heavily censored by the national government. According to the RWB, North Korea is a prime example where all mediums of communication are controlled by the government. According to the RWB, the Internet is used by the North Korean government primarily to spread propaganda. The North Korean network is monitored heavily. All websites are under government control, as is all other media in North Korea.
Oman
Listed as pervasive in the social area, as substantial in Internet tools, selective in political, and as no evidence in conflict/security by ONI in August 2009.
Oman engages in extensive filtering of pornographic Web sites, gay and lesbian content, content that is critical of Islam, content about illegal drugs, and anonymizer sites used to circumvent blocking. There is no evidence of technical filtering of political content, but laws and regulations restrict free expression online and encourage self-censorship.
Pakistan
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 55) and as "not free" in 2012 (score 63), 2013 (score 67), 2014 (score 69), 2015 (score 69), 2016 (score 69) 2017 (score 71), and 2018 (score 73).
Listed as substantial in the conflict/security and as selective in the political, social, and Internet tools areas by ONI in 2011.
Listed as an Internet Enemy by RWB in 2014.
Pakistanis currently have free access to a wide range of Internet content, including most sexual, political, social, and religious sites on the Internet. Internet filtering remains both inconsistent and intermittent. Although the majority of filtering in Pakistan is intermittent—such as the occasional block on a major Web site like Blogspot or YouTube—the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) continues to block sites containing content it considers to be blasphemous, anti-Islamic, or threatening to internal security. Pakistan has blocked access to websites critical of the government.
Qatar
Listed as pervasive in the social and Internet tools areas and selective in political and conflict/security by ONI in August 2009.
Qatar is the second most connected country in the Arab region, but Internet users have heavily censored access to the Internet. Qatar filters pornography, political criticism of Gulf countries, gay and lesbian content, sexual health resources, dating and escort services, and privacy and circumvention tools. Political filtering is highly selective, but journalists self-censor on sensitive issues such as government policies, Islam, and the ruling family.
Saudi Arabia
Rated "not free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 70), 2012 (score 71), 2013 (score 70), 2014 (score 72), 2015 (score 73), 2016 (score 72), 2017 (score 72), and 2018 (score 73).
Listed as pervasive in the social and Internet tools areas, as substantial in political, and as selective in conflict/security by ONI in August 2009.
Listed as an Internet enemy by RWB in 2011.
Saudi Arabia directs all international Internet traffic through a proxy run by the CITC. Content filtering is implemented there using software by Secure Computing. Additionally, a number of sites are blocked according to two lists maintained by the Internet Services Unit (ISU): one containing "immoral" (mostly pornographic) sites, the other based on directions from a security committee run by the Ministry of Interior (including sites critical of the Saudi government). Citizens are encouraged to actively report "immoral" sites for blocking, using a provided Web form. Many Wikipedia articles in different languages have been included in the censorship of "immoral" content in Saudi Arabia. The legal basis for content-filtering is the resolution by Council of Ministers dated 12 February 2001. According to a study carried out in 2004 by the OpenNet Initiative: "The most aggressive censorship focused on pornography, drug use, gambling, religious conversion of Muslims, and filtering circumvention tools."
Syria
Rated "not free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2012 (score 83), 2013 (score 85), 2014 (score 88), 2015 (score 87), 2016 (score 87), 2017 (score 86), and 2018 (score 83).
Listed as pervasive in the political and Internet tools areas, and as selective in social and conflict/security by ONI in August 2009.
Listed as an Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2011.
Listed as a State Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2013 for involvement in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights.
Syria has banned websites for political reasons and arrested people accessing them. In addition to filtering a wide range of Web content, the Syrian government monitors Internet use very closely and has detained citizens "for expressing their opinions or reporting information online." Vague and broadly worded laws invite government abuse and have prompted Internet users to engage in self-censoring and self-monitoring to avoid the state's ambiguous grounds for arrest.
During the Syrian civil war Internet connectivity between Syria and the outside world shut down in late November 2011 and again in early May 2013.
Turkmenistan
Listed as pervasive in the political area and as selective in social, conflict/security, and Internet tools by ONI in December 2010.
Listed as an Internet enemy by RWB in 2011.
Internet usage in Turkmenistan is under tight control of the government. Turkmen got their news through satellite television until 2008 when the government decided to get rid of satellites, leaving Internet as the only medium where information could be gathered. The Internet is monitored thoroughly by the government and websites run by human rights organizations and news agencies are blocked. Attempts to get around this censorship can lead to grave consequences.
United Arab Emirates
Rated "not free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2013 (score 66), 2014 (score 67), 2015 (score 68), 2016 (score 68), 2017 (score 69), and 2018 (score 69).
Listed as pervasive in the social and Internet tools areas, as substantial in political, and as selective in conflict/security by ONI in August 2009.
Listed as Under Surveillance by RWB in 2011.
The United Arab Emirates forcibly censors the Internet using Secure Computing's solution. The nation's ISPs Etisalat and du ban pornography, politically sensitive material, all Israeli domains, and anything against the perceived moral values of the UAE. All or most VoIP services are blocked. The Emirates Discussion Forum (Arabic: منتدى الحوار الإماراتي), or simply uaehewar.net, has been subjected to multiple censorship actions by UAE authorities.
Uzbekistan
Rated "not free" in Freedom on the Net from Freedom House in 2012 (score 77), 2013 (score 78), 2014 (score 79), 2015 (score 78), 2016 (score 79), 2017 (score 77), and 2018 (score 75).
Uzbekistan has been listed as an Internet enemy by Reporters Without Borders since the list was created in 2006.
The OpenNet Initiative found evidence that Internet filtering was pervasive in the political area and selective in the social, conflict/security, and Internet tools areas during testing that was reported in 2008 and 2010.
Uzbekistan maintains the most extensive and pervasive filtering system among the CIS countries. It prevents access to websites regarding banned Islamic movements, independent media, NGOs, material critical of the government's human rights violations, discussion of the events in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain, and news about demonstrations and protest movements. Contributors to online discussion of the events in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain have been arrested. Some Internet cafes in the capital have posted warnings that users will be fined for viewing pornographic websites or website containing banned political material. The main VoIP protocols SIP and IAX used to be blocked for individual users; however, , blocks were no longer in place. Facebook was blocked for few days in 2010.
Vietnam
Rated "not free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 73), 2012 (score 73), 2013 (score 75), 2014 (score 76), 2015 (score 76), 2016 (score 76), 2017 (score 76), and 2018 (score 76).
Classified by ONI as pervasive in the political, as substantial in the Internet tools, and as selective in the social and conflict/security areas in 2011.
Listed as an Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2011.
Listed as a State Enemy of the Internet by RWB in 2013 for involvement in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights.
The main networks in Vietnam prevent access to websites critical of the Vietnamese government, expatriate political parties, and international human rights organizations, among others. Online police reportedly monitor Internet cafes and cyber dissidents have been imprisoned for advocating democracy.
Substantial censorship or surveillance
Burma
Rated "not free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 88), 2012 (score 75), and 2013 (score 62), as "partly free" in 2014 (score 60), and "not free" in 2015 (score 63), 2016 (score 61), 2017 (score 63), and 2018 (score 64).
Listed as selective in the political and Internet tools areas, as substantial in social, and as no evidence of filtering in conflict/security by ONI in August 2012.
Listed as an Internet enemy by RWB from 2006 to 2013.
Beginning in September 2012, after years spent as one of the world's most strictly controlled information environments, the government of Burma (Myanmar) began to open up access to previously censored online content. Independent and foreign news sites, oppositional political content, and sites with content relating to human rights and political reform—all previously blocked—became accessible. In August 2012, the Burmese Press Scrutiny and Registration Department announced that all pre-publication censorship of the press was to be discontinued, such that articles dealing with religion and politics would no longer require review by the government before publication.
Restrictions on content deemed harmful to state security remain in place. Pornography is still widely blocked, as is content relating to alcohol and drugs, gambling websites, online dating sites, sex education, gay and lesbian content, and web censorship circumvention tools. In 2012 almost all of the previously blocked websites of opposition political parties, critical political content, and independent news sites were accessible, with only 5 of 541 tested URLs categorized as political content blocked.
Indonesia
Rated "partly free" in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 46), 2012 (score 42), 2013 (score 41), 2014 (score 42), 2015 (score 42), 2016 (score 44), 2017 (score 47), and 2018 (score 46).
Listed as substantial in the social area, as selective in the political and Internet tools areas, and as no evidence of filtering in the conflict/security area by ONI in 2011 based on testing done during 2009 and 2010. Testing also showed that Internet filtering in Indonesia is unsystematic and inconsistent, illustrated by the differences found in the level of filtering between ISPs.
Although the government of Indonesia holds a positive view about the Internet as a means for economic development, it has become increasingly concerned over the effect of access to information and has demonstrated an interest in increasing its control over offensive online content, particularly pornographic and discriminatory (e.g. anti-Chinese or anti-Christianity and Christians) online content, as well as contents supporting and encouraging Islamic fundamentalism (namely pro-caliphate) and Islamic terrorism. The government regulates such content through legal and regulatory frameworks as well as partnerships with ISPs and Internet cafés.
Kazakhstan
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 55), 2012 (score 58), 2013 (score 59), 2014 (score 60), and "not free" in 2015 (score 61), 2016 (score 63), 2017 (score 62), and 2018 (score 62).
Listed as selective in the political and social areas and as no evidence in conflict/security and Internet tools by ONI in December 2010.
Listed as Under Surveillance by RWB in 2012.
In 2011 the government responded to an oil worker's strike, a major riot, a wave of bombings, and the president's ailing health by imposing new, repressive Internet regulations, greater control of information, especially online information, blocking of news websites, and cutting communications with the city of Zhanaozen during the riot.
On 9 May 2019, Victory Day, internet observatory NetBlocks reported a half-day nationwide blanket ban across Kazakhstan of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram as well as various independent news media websites. The restrictions were implemented after opposition groups called for rallies in the run up to presidential elections that will elect a successor for Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Kazakhstan uses its significant regulatory authority to ensure that all Internet traffic passes through infrastructure controlled by the dominant telecommunications provider KazakhTelecom. Selective content filtering is widely used, and second- and third-generation control strategies are evident. Independent media and bloggers reportedly practice self-censorship for fear of government reprisal. The technical sophistication of the Kazakhstan Internet environment is evolving and the government's tendency toward stricter online controls warrant closer examination and monitoring.
Palestine
Listed as substantial in the social area and as no evidence in political, conflict/security, and Internet tools by ONI in August 2009.
Access to Internet in the Palestinian territories remains relatively open, although social filtering of sexually explicit content has been implemented in Palestine. Internet in the West Bank remains almost entirely unfiltered, save for a single news Web site that was banned for roughly six months starting in late 2008. Media freedom is constrained in Palestine and the West Bank by the political upheaval and internal conflict as well as by the Israeli forces.
South Korea
Rated "partly free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2011 (score 32), 2012 (score 34), 2013 (score 32), 2014 (score 33), 2015 (score 34), 2016 (score 36), 2017 (score 35), and 2018 (score 36).
Listed as pervasive in the conflict/security area, as selective in social, and as no evidence in political and Internet tools by ONI in 2011.
Listed as Under Surveillance by RWB in 2011.
South Korea is a world leader in Internet and broadband penetration, but its citizens do not have access to a free and unfiltered Internet. South Korea's government maintains a wide-ranging approach toward the regulation of specific online content and imposes a substantial level of censorship on elections-related discourse and on a large number of Web sites that the government deems subversive or socially harmful. The policies are particularly strong toward suppressing anonymity in the Korean internet.
In 2007, numerous bloggers were censored and their posts deleted by police for expressing criticism of, or even support for, presidential candidates. This even led to some bloggers being arrested by the police.
South Korea uses IP address blocking to ban web sites considered sympathetic to North Korea. Illegal websites, such as those offering unrated games, file sharing, pornography, and gambling, are also blocked. Any attempts to bypass this is enforced with the "three-strikes" program.
In 2019, South Korean Government adopted an enhanced online filtering system using “SNI Field Interception,” which allows the Korean Communications Commission to block HTTPS encrypted websites. This issue is currently causing strong resistance from Korean internet users.
Thailand
Rated "not free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2011–2012 (scores 61 and 61) and 2014–2018 (scores 62, 63, 66, 67, and 65). Freedom House listed Thailand as "partly free" in 2013 (score 60), due partially to improvements in access to the Internet.
Listed as selective in political, social, and Internet tools and as no evidence in conflict/security by ONI in 2011.
Listed as Under Surveillance by RWB in 2011.
Prior to the September 2006 military coup d'état most Internet censorship in Thailand was focused on blocking pornographic websites. The following years have seen a constant stream of sometimes violent protests, regional unrest, emergency decrees, a new cybercrimes law, and an updated Internal Security Act. And year by year Internet censorship has grown, with its focus shifting to lèse majesté, national security, and political issues. Estimates put the number of websites blocked at over 110,000 and growing in 2010.
The national constitution provides for freedom of expression and press as "regulated by law"; but, the government imposes overwhelming limitations on these rights. As of 2020, around 52% of Thailand's population used the Internet, thus making Internet more of a means of expression.
Reasons for blocking:
{|
|- style="vertical-align:bottom; text-align:center;"
||Prior to2006
|| 2010
|align=left |Reason
|- valign=top align=center
|| 11% || 77%
|align=left |lèse majesté content (content that defames, insults, threatens, or is unflattering to the King, includes national security and some political issues)
|- valign=top align=center
|| 60% || 22%
|align=left |pornographic content
|- valign=top align=center
|| 2% || <1%
|align=left |content related to gambling
|- valign=top align=center
|| 27% || <1%
|align=left |copyright infringement, illegal products and services, illegal drugs, sales of sex equipment, prostitution, ...
|}
According to the Associated Press, the Computer Crime Act has contributed to a sharp increase in the number of lèse majesté cases tried each year in Thailand. While between 1990 and 2005, roughly five cases were tried in Thai courts each year, since that time about 400 cases have come to trial.
Turkey
Rated "partly free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2009 and 2011–2015 (scores 42, 45, 46, 49, 55, and 58) and "not free" in 2016–2018 (scores 61, 66, and 66).
Listed as selective in the political, social, and Internet tools areas and as no evidence of filtering in the conflict/security area by ONI in December 2010.
Listed as under surveillance by RWB since 2010.
The Turkish government has implemented legal and institutional reforms driven by the country's ambitions to become a European Union member state, while at the same time demonstrating its high sensitivity to defamation and other inappropriate online content, which has resulted in the closure of a number of local and international Web sites. In October 2010, a ban on YouTube was lifted, but a range of IP addresses used by Google remained blocked, thus access to Google Apps hosted sites, including all Google App Engine powered sites and some of the Google services, remained blocked. All Internet traffic passes through Turk Telecom's infrastructure, allowing centralized control over online content and facilitating the implementation of shutdown decisions.
Many minor and major websites in Turkey are subject to censorship. Web sites are blocked for intellectual property infringement, particularly file-sharing and streaming sites; for providing access to material that shows or promotes the sexual exploitation and abuse of children, obscenity, prostitution, or gambling; for insults to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of modern Turkey; for reporting news on southeastern Turkey and Kurdish issues; or which defame individuals. In addition to widespread filtering, state authorities are proactive in requesting the deletion or removal of content online. more than 8000 major and minor websites were banned, most of them pornographic and mp3 sharing sites. By 2013 the number of blocked sites had grown to slightly under 30,000. Among the web sites banned are the prominent sites YouPorn, Megaupload, Tagged, Slide, and ShoutCast. However, blocked sites are often available using proxies or by changing DNS servers. The Internet Movie Database escaped being blocked due to a misspelling of its domain name, resulting in a futile ban on .
Under new regulations announced on 22 February 2011 and scheduled to go into effect on 22 August 2011, the Information Technologies Board (BTK), an offshoot of the prime minister's office, will require that all computers select one of four levels of content filtering (family, children, domestic, or standard) in order to gain access to the Internet.
In its 2013 Freedom on the Net report, Freedom House says:
that government censorship of the Internet is relatively common and has increased steadily over recent years;
that authorities added several thousand websites to its blocking list, increasing the total to almost 30,000;
that the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey in violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights for blocking access to the hosting platform Google Sites; and
several users received fines, prison time, or suspended sentences for comments made on social media sites.
In 2013 social media sites were banned in Turkey after the Taksim Gezi Park protests. Both Twitter and YouTube were closed by a decision of the Turkish court. And a new law, passed by Turkish Parliament, granted immunity to Turkey's Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) personnel. The TİB was also given the authority to block access to specific websites without the need for a court order.
On 20 March 2014, access to Twitter was blocked when a court ordered that "protection measures" be applied to the service. This followed earlier remarks by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who vowed to "wipe out Twitter" following damaging allegations of corruption in his inner circle.
On 10 October 2015, following the first of two bombings in Ankara, censorship monitoring organization Turkey Blocks corroborated user reports that Turkey intentionally restricted access to Twitter in an apparent attempt to control the flow of information relating to the attack.
In October 2016, Turkish authorities intermittently blocked all Internet access in the east and southeast of the country after detaining the elected co-mayors of the city of Diyarbakır.
On 4 November 2016, Turkish authorities blocked access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp in the country, following the detention of 11 Free Democratic Party (HDP) members of parliament. Internet restrictions are increasingly being used to suppress coverage of political incidents, a form of censorship deployed at short notice to prevent civil unrest.
On 29 April 2017, authorities has started blocking access to all Wikipedia sites, without citing a particular legal foundation. The Turkish government allegedly demands that the Wikimedia should comply with the international laws, refrain from negative propaganda against Turkey, set up a local chapter and comply with the local court orders.
Selective censorship or surveillance
Azerbaijan
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 48), 2012 (score 50), 2013 (score 52), 2014 (score 55), and 2015 (score 56).
Listed as selective in the political and social areas and as no evidence in conflict/security and Internet tools by ONI in November 2009.
The Internet in Azerbaijan remains largely free from direct censorship, although there is evidence of second- and third-generation controls.
Bangladesh
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2013 (score 49), 2014 (score 49), 2015 (score 51), 2016 (score 56), and 2017 (score 54).
No evidence of filtering found by ONI in 2011.
Although Internet access in Bangladesh is not restricted by a national level filtering regime, the state has intervened to block Web sites for hosting anti-Islamic content and content deemed subversive. Internet content is regulated by existing legal frameworks that restrict material deemed defamatory or offensive, as well as content that might challenge law and order.
The Bangla blogging platform Sachalayatan was reported to be inaccessible on 15 July 2008, and was forced to migrate to a new IP address. Although the blocking was not officially confirmed, Sachalayatan was likely Bangladesh's inaugural filtering event. YouTube was blocked for a few days in March 2009 in order to protect the “national interest”. The disputed video covered a partial audio recording of a meeting between the prime minister and military officials, who were angry at the government's handling of a mutiny by border guards in Dhaka that left more than seventy people dead.
Facebook was blocked by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) for 7 days starting on 29 May 2010 because of "obnoxious images", including depictions of Mohammed and several of the country's political officials as well as links to pornographic sites. The block was lifted after Facebook agreed to remove the offensive content. During the same period a 30-year-old man was arrested in the Bangladeshi capital on charges of uploading satiric images of some political leaders on Facebook.
The BTRC again blocked YouTube access in September 2012 after Google, Inc. ignored requests to remove the controversial film, Innocence of Muslims, from the site.
On 16 May 2013 BTRC asked the international internet gateway operators to reduce the upload bandwidth of ISPs by 75% in an effort to prevent illegal VoIP. There is speculation that the bandwidth reduction is actually an effort to make it difficult for people to upload 'problematic' videos, images, TV talk show clips, etc. in the social media.
A lot of websites ranging from gaming websites to pornographic websites to gambling websites and social websites like Reddit are blocked in Bangladesh and the list seems to be increasing each and every day.
Bhutan
Individuals and groups are generally permitted to engage in peaceful expression of views via the Internet. Government officials state that the government does not block access, restrict content, or censor Web sites. However, Freedom House reports the government occasionally blocks access to Web sites containing pornography or information deemed offensive to the state; but that such blocked information typically does not extend to political content. In its Freedom of the Press 2012 report, Freedom House described high levels of self-censorship among media practitioners, despite few reports of official intimidation or threats.
The constitution provides for freedom of speech including for members of the press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. Citizens can publicly and privately criticize the government without reprisal. The constitution states that persons "shall not be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on the person's honor and reputation", and the government generally respects these prohibitions.
Cambodia
Rated "partly free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2013 (score 47), 2014 (score 47), and 2015 (score 48).
Compared to traditional media in Cambodia, new media, including online news, social networks and personal blogs, enjoy more freedom and independence from government censorship and restrictions. However, the government does proactively block blogs and websites, either on moral grounds, or for hosting content deemed critical of the government. The government restricts access to sexually explicit content, but does not systematically censor online political discourse. Since 2011 three blogs hosted overseas have been blocked for perceived antigovernment content. In 2012, government ministries threatened to shutter internet cafes too near schools—citing moral concerns—and instituted surveillance of cafe premises and cell phone subscribers as a security measure.
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without appropriate legal authority. During 2012 NGOs expressed concern about potential online restrictions. In February and November, the government published two circulars, which, if implemented fully, would require Internet cafes to install surveillance cameras and restrict operations within major urban centers. Activists also reported concern about a draft “cybercrimes” law, noting that it could be used to restrict online freedoms. The government maintained it would only regulate criminal activity.
Georgia
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2009 (score 43) and 2011 (score 35) and "free" in 2012 (score 30), 2013 (score 26), 2014 (score 26), and 2015 (score 24).
Listed as selective in the political and conflict/security areas and as no evidence in social and Internet tools by ONI in November 2010.
Access to Internet content in Georgia is largely unrestricted as the legal constitutional framework, developed after the 2003 Rose Revolution, established a series of provisions that should, in theory, curtail any attempts by the state to censor the Internet. At the same time, these legal instruments have not been sufficient to prevent limited filtering on corporate and educational networks. Georgia's dependence on international connectivity makes it vulnerable to upstream filtering, evident in the March 2008 blocking of YouTube by Turk Telecom.
Georgia blocked all websites with addresses ending in .ru (top-level domain for Russian Federation) during the Russo-Georgian War in 2008.
India
Rated "partly free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2009 (score 34), 2011 (score 36), 2012 (score 39), 2013 (score 47), 2014 (score 42), and 2015 (score 40).
Listed as selective in all areas by ONI in 2011.
Listed as Under Surveillance by RWB in 2012 and 2013 and as an Internet Enemy in 2014.
Since the Mumbai bombings of 2008, the Indian authorities have stepped up Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers, while publicly rejecting accusations of censorship.
ONI describes India as:
A stable democracy with a strong tradition of press freedom, [that] nevertheless continues its regime of Internet filtering. However, India's selective censorship of blogs and other content, often under the guise of security, has also been met with significant opposition.
Indian ISPs continue to selectively filter Web sites identified by authorities. However, government attempts at filtering have not been entirely effective because blocked content has quickly migrated to other Web sites and users have found ways to circumvent filtering. The government has also been criticized for a poor understanding of the technical feasibility of censorship and for haphazardly choosing which Web sites to block.
Jordan
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2011 (score 42), 2012 (score 45), 2013 (score 46), 2014 (score 48), and 2015 (score 50).
Listed as selective in the political area and as no evidence in social, conflict/security, and Internet tools by ONI in August 2009.
Censorship in Jordan is relatively light, with filtering selectively applied to only a small number of sites. However, media laws and regulations encourage some measure of self-censorship in cyberspace, and citizens have reportedly been questioned and arrested for Web content they have authored. Censorship in Jordan is mainly focused on political issues that might be seen as a threat to national security due to the nation's close proximity to regional hotspots like Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories.
In 2013, the Press and Publications Department initiated a ban on Jordanian news websites which had not registered and been licensed by government agency. The order issued to Telecommunication Regulatory Commission contained a list of over 300 websites to be blocked. The new law, which enforced registration of websites, would also hold online news sites accountable for the comments left by their readers. They would also be required to archive all comments for at least six months.
In 2016, the Internet Archive was blocked, however it was unblocked later.
Kyrgyzstan
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net 2012 (score 35), 2013 (score 35), 2014 (score 34), and 2015 (score 35).
Listed as selective in the political and social areas and as no evidence in conflict/security and Internet tools by ONI in December 2010.
Access to the Internet in Kyrgyzstan has deteriorated as heightened political tensions have led to more frequent instances of second- and third-generation controls. The government has become more sensitive to the Internet's influence on domestic politics and enacted laws that increase its authority to regulate the sector.
Liberalization of the telecommunications market in Kyrgyzstan has made the Internet affordable for the majority of the population. However, Kyrgyzstan is an effectively cyberlocked country dependent on purchasing bandwidth from Kazakhstan and Russia. The increasingly authoritarian regime in Kazakhstan is shifting toward more restrictive Internet controls, which is leading to instances of upstream filtering affecting ISPs in Kyrgyzstan.
Lebanon
Rated as "partly free" in Freedom on the Net reports by Freedom House in 2013 (score 45), 2014 (score 47), 2015 (score 45), 2016 (score 45), and 2017 (score 46).
Listed as no evidence in all four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) by ONI in August 2009.
Internet traffic in Lebanon is barely controlled. There is no surveillance, but a handful of websites have been blocked. The sites blocked relate to gambling, child pornography, prostitution services, and a few Israeli websites. The blocking is incredibly basic however, covering very few relevant websites, is sometimes done in error, and can be easily bypassed without a need for a VPN for the websites actually blocked.
Only internet provided from the Ogero Government ISP has the restrictions, all websites with no exceptions are unblocked on other ISPs.
Malaysia
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2009 (score 41), 2011 (score 41), 2012 (score 43), 2013 (score 44), 2014 (score 42), and 2015 (score 43).
Listed as no evidence in the political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools areas by ONI in May 2007.
Listed as under surveillance by RWB in 2008, 2009, and from 2011 to the present.
There have been mixed messages and confusion regarding Internet censorship in Malaysia. Internet content is officially uncensored, and civil liberties assured, though on numerous occasions the former government (1957-2018) has been accused of filtering politically sensitive sites. Any act that curbs internet freedom is theoretically contrary to the Multimedia Act signed by the government of Malaysia in the 1990s. However, websites containing content deemed illegal by law such as copyright infringement, online gambling and pornography are subject to blocking done through injection of DNS block pages by Malaysian ISPs. Pervasive state controls on traditional media spill over to the Internet at times, leading to self-censorship and reports that the state investigates and harasses bloggers and cyber-dissidents.
In April 2011, prime minister Najib Razak repeated promises that Malaysia will never censor the Internet.
On 11 June, however, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) ordered ISPs to block 10 websites for violating the Copyright Act. This led to the creation of a new Facebook page, "1M Malaysians Don't Want SKMM Block File Sharing Website".
In May 2013, leading up to the 13th Malaysian General Election, there were reports of access to YouTube videos critical of the Barisan National Government and to pages of Pakatan Rakyat political leaders in Facebook being blocked. Analysis of the network traffic showed that ISPs were scanning the headers and actively blocking requests for the videos and Facebook pages.
In April 2018, the 13th Cabinet of Malaysia, just a few weeks short of dissolution, tabled a new law called the Anti-Fake News Bill, in efforts to curb freedom of speech on social media, with fear that they would lose the upcoming general elections.
In May 2018, after the 2018 General Elections, as the 60-year rule of Barisan Nasional came to an end with a Pakatan Harapan win, freedom of speech on social media increased greatly and it was announced that laws oppressing freedom of expression would be either repealed or abolished.
In July 2018, the Malaysian police announced the creation of the Malaysian Internet Crime Against Children Investigation Unit (Micac) that is equipped with real-time mass internet surveillance software developed in the United States and is tasked with the monitoring of all Malaysian internet users, with a focus on pornography and child pornography. The system creates a "data library" of users which includes details such as IP addresses, websites, locations, duration and frequency of use and files uploaded and downloaded.
Northern Cyprus
Philippines
Rated "free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2012 (score 23), 2013 (score 25), 2014 (score 27), 2015 (score 27), 2016 (score 26), 2017 (score 28), and as "partly free" in 2018 (score 31).
There is no ONI country profile for the Philippines, but it is included in the ONI Regional Overview for Asia and the ONI global Internet filtering maps show no evidence of filtering in the political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools areas.
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respects these rights. There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups engage in peaceful expressions of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. Internet access is widely available. According to International Telecommunication Union statistics for 2009, approximately 6.5 percent of the country's inhabitants used the Internet.
In 2012 the Republic Act No. 10175 or Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was signed by President Benigno Aquino, which criminalizes acts such as libel done online that are already punishable in other media such as radio, TV, and newspapers, with punishment one level higher than their non-computer counterpart. The Act was greatly endorsed by Senator Tito Sotto, who said that he was cyberbullied because he allegedly plagiarized bloggers and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
After several petitions submitted to the Supreme Court questioned the constitutionality of the Act, on 9 October 2012, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order, stopping implementation of the Act for 120 days, and extended it on 5 February 2013 "until further orders from the court."
On 14 January 2017, the two popular pornographic websites Pornhub and XVideos were blocked in the Philippines as part of the implementation of Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law. However, there are some ISPs in the country where porn websites are still accessible. The government continues to block websites that contains child pornography.
Singapore
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2014 (score 40) and 2015 (score 41).
Listed as selective in the social area and as no evidence in political, conflict/security, and Internet tools by ONI in May 2007.
The Republic of Singapore engages in the Internet filtering, blocking only the original set of 100 mass-impactable websites. However, the state employs a combination of licensing controls and legal pressures to regulate Internet access and to limit the presence of objectionable content and conduct online.
In 2005 and 2006 three people were arrested and charged with sedition for posting racist comments on the Internet, of which two have been sentenced to imprisonment.
The Media Development Authority maintains a confidential list of blocked websites that are inaccessible within the country. The Media Development Authority exerts control over all the ISPs to ensure it is not accessible unless there is an extension called "Go Away MDA".
On 8 October 2012, the NTUC executive director, Amy Cheong was fired after posting racist comments on the Internet.
In July 2014, the government made plans to block The Pirate Bay and 45 file sharing websites, after the Copyright Act 2014 was amended.
Sri Lanka
Rated "partly free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2012 (score 55), 2013 (score 58), 2014 (score 58), and 2015 (score 47).
Classified by ONI as no evidence of filtering in 2009. There is no individual ONI country profile for Sri Lanka, but it is included in the regional overview for Asia.
Listed as Under Surveillance by RWB in 2008, 2009, and from 2011 to the present.
Several political and news websites, including tamilnet.com and lankanewsweb.com have been blocked within the country. The Sri Lanka courts have ordered hundreds of adult sites blocked to "protect women and children".
In October and November 2011 the Sri Lankan Telecommunication Regulatory Commission blocked the five websites, www.lankaenews.com, srilankamirror.com, srilankaguardian.com, paparacigossip9.com, and www.lankawaynews.com, for what the government alleges as publishing reports that amount to "character assassination and violating individual privacy" and damaging the character of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, ministers and senior government officials. The five sites have published material critical of the government and alleged corruption and malfeasance by politicians.
Tajikistan
Listed as selective in the political area and as no evidence as in social, conflict/security, and Internet tools by ONI in December 2010.
Internet penetration remains low in Tajikistan because of widespread poverty and the relatively high cost of Internet access. Internet access remains largely unrestricted, but emerging second-generation controls have threatened to erode these freedoms just as Internet penetration is starting to affect political life in the country. In the run-up to the 2006 presidential elections, ISPs were asked to voluntarily censor access to an opposition Web site, and other second-generation controls have begun to emerge.
Little or no censorship or surveillance
Afghanistan
Listed as no evidence in all four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) by ONI in May 2007.
Only about 0.1% of Afghans are online, thus limiting Internet access as a means of expression. Freedom of expression is inviolable under the Afghanistan Constitution, and every Afghan has the right to print or publish topics without prior submission to state authorities. However, the limits of the law are clear: under the Constitution no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the religion of Islam. The December 2005 Media Law includes bans on four broad content categories: the publication of news contrary to Islam and other religions; slanderous or insulting materials concerning individuals; matters contrary to the Afghan Constitution or criminal law; and the exposure of the identities of victims of violence. Proposed additions to the law would ban content jeopardizing stability, national security, and territorial integrity of Afghanistan; false information that might disrupt public opinion; promotion of any religion other than Islam; and "material which might damage physical well-being, psychological and moral security of people, especially children and the youth.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported that the Afghan Ministry of Communications mandated in June 2010 that all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Afghanistan filter Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, YouTube and websites related to alcohol, gambling and sex. They are also trying or blocking websites which are “immoral” and against the traditions of the Afghan people. However, executives at Afghan ISPs said this was the result of a mistaken announcement by Ariana Network Service, one of the country's largest ISPs. An executive there said that while the government intends to censor pornographic content and gambling sites, social networking sites and email services are not slated for filtering. , enforcement of Afghanistan's restrictions on "immoral" content was limited, with internet executives saying the government didn't have the technical capacity to filter internet traffic.
Armenia
Rated "free" by Freedom House in Freedom on the Net in 2013 (score 29), 2014 (score 28), 2015 (score 28), and 2016 (score 30), "partly free" in 2017 (score 32), and "free" in 2018 (score 27).
Listed as substantial in the political area and as selective in social, conflict/security, and Internet tools by ONI in November 2010.
Access to the Internet in Armenia is largely unfettered, although evidence of second- and third-generation filtering is mounting. Armenia's political climate is volatile and largely unpredictable. In times of political unrest, the government has not hesitated to put in place restrictions on the Internet as a means to curtail public protest and discontent.
Cyprus
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet (with the exception that betting sites not licensed by the Republic of Cyprus are blocked) or reports that the government monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms without appropriate legal authority. Individuals and groups engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including e‑mail.
The law provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combine to ensure freedom of speech and of the press. The law prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice.
East Timor
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms. Internet use is very low with less than 1% of the population using the Internet in 2012. Internet access is expensive, slow, unreliable, and not widely available outside of urban areas. The law prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice.
Iraq
Listed as no evidence in all four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) by ONI in August 2009.
There are no overt government restrictions on access to the Internet or official acknowledgement that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight. NGOs report that the government could and was widely believed to monitor e‑mail, chat rooms, and social media sites through local Internet service providers.
The constitution broadly provides for the right of free expression, provided it does not violate public order and morality or express support for the banned Baath Party or for altering the country's borders by violent means. In practice the main limitation on individual and media exercise of these rights is self-censorship due to real fear of reprisals by the government, political parties, ethnic and sectarian forces, terrorist and extremist groups, or criminal gangs. Libel and defamation are offenses under the penal law and the 1968 Publications Law with penalties of up to seven years' imprisonment for publicly insulting the government.
The constitution mandates that authorities may not enter or search homes except with a judicial order. The constitution also prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy. In practice security forces often entered homes without search warrants and took other measures interfering with privacy, family, and correspondence.
Israel
Listed as no evidence in all four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) by ONI in August 2009.
The Orthodox Jewish parties in Israel proposed an internet censorship legislation would only allow access to pornographic Internet sites for users who identify themselves as adults and request not to be subject to filtering. In February 2008 the law passed in its first of three votes required, however, it was rejected by the government's legislation committee on 12 July 2009.
Japan
Rated "free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2013 (score 22), 2014 (score 22), 2015 (score 22), 2016 (score 22), and 2017 (score 23).
Japan is not individually classified by ONI and does not appear on the RWB lists.
Japanese law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government respects these rights in practice. These freedoms extend to speech and expression on the Internet. An independent press, an effective judiciary and a functioning democratic political system combine to ensure these rights. The government does not restrict or disrupt access to the Internet or censor online content, and there were no credible reports that the government monitors private online communications without appropriate legal authority. The Internet is widely accessible and used. While there is little or no overt censorship or restriction of content, there are concerns that the government indirectly encourages self-censorship practices. A Reporters Without Borders survey concluded that media self-censorship has risen in response to legal changes and government criticism.
Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2017 reports that "Internet access is not restricted" in Japan, while their Freedom on the Net 2017 reports Japan's "Internet freedom status" as "free". ISPs voluntarily filter child pornography, and many offer parents the option to filter other immoral content to protect young internet users. Depictions of genitalia are pixelated to obscure them for Internet users based on Article 175 of the penal code, which governs obscenity.
The 2001 Provider Liability Limitation Act directed ISPs to establish a self-regulatory framework to govern takedown requests involving illegal or objectionable content, defamation, privacy violations, and copyright infringement. In recent years, content removals have focused on hate speech and obscene content, including child pornography, "revenge porn", explicit images shared without consent of the subject, and increasingly the "right to be forgotten" where search engines are required to unlink inaccurate or irrelevant material about specific individuals.
Legislation criminalizing the use of the Internet for child pornography and the solicitation of sex from minors was passed in 2003.
Speech was limited for twelve days before the December 2012 election under a law banning campaigning online. The legislature overturned the law in April 2013, but kept restrictions on campaign e-mail.
Amendments to the copyright law in 2012 criminalized intentionally downloading content that infringes on copyright. There were calls for civil rather than criminal penalties in such cases. Downloading this content may be punishable by up to 2 years' imprisonment.
Anti-Korean and anti-Chinese hate speech proliferated online in 2012 and 2013 amid real-world territorial disputes.
In 2013 new state secrets legislation criminalized both leaking and publishing broadly defined national secrets regardless of intent or content. A July 2014 review by the United Nations Human Rights Committee said the legislation laid out "a vague and broad definition of the matters that can be classified as secret" with "high criminal penalties that could generate a chilling effect on the activities of journalists and human rights defenders."
A 2014 law dealing with revenge porn requires Internet providers to comply with takedown requests within two days.
In April 2016 the UN special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression said, "The independence of the press is facing serious threats." He noted "weak legal protection, the [new] Specially Designated Secrets Act, and persistent government pressure".
Laos
Laos is included in the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) Regional Overview for Asia (2009). ONI found no evidence of Internet filtering in the political, social, conflict/security, and tools areas based on testing performed in 2011.
Very few homes have Internet access; most non-business users depend on Internet cafes located chiefly in the larger urban areas. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reported that Internet users numbered approximately 11 percent of the country's inhabitants in 2012.
The government controls domestic Internet servers and sporadically monitors Internet usage, but by the end of 2012 it apparently did not have the ability to block access to Web sites. Authorities have developed infrastructure to route all Internet traffic through a single gateway, enabling them to monitor and restrict content. However, they apparently had not utilized this increased capability as of the end of 2012. The law generally protects privacy, including that of mail, telephone, and electronic correspondence, but the government reportedly continues to violate these legal protections when there is a perceived security threat. Security laws allow the government to monitor individuals' movements and private communications, including via cell phones and e-mail.
Mongolia
Mongolia is not individually classified by ONI or in Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2013 report, and does not appear on the RWB lists.
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet. The criminal code and constitution prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, however, there are reports of government surveillance, wiretapping, and e-mail account monitoring. Individuals and groups engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. And while there is no official censorship by the government, journalists frequently complain of harassment and intimidation.
Censorship of public information is banned under the 1998 Media Freedom Law, but a 1995 state secrets law severely limits access to government information. The Law on Information Transparency and Right to Information was passed in June 2011, with the legislation taking effect in December 2011. Internet users remain concerned about a February 2011 regulation, the "General Conditions and Requirements on Digital Content", by the Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) that restricts obscene and inappropriate content without explicitly defining it and requires popular websites to make their users' IP addresses publicly visible.
Nepal
Listed as no evidence in all four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) by ONI in May 2007.
In 2007 Nepali journalists reported virtually unconditional freedom of the press, including the Internet, and ONI's testing revealed no evidence that Nepal imposes technological filters on the Internet.
Taiwan
Taiwan is not individually classified by ONI or in Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2013 report, and does not appear on the RWB lists.
Taiwan's constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and the authorities generally respect these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combine to protect freedom of speech and press. There are no official restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the authorities monitor e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight. The extent to which child prostitution occurs is difficult to measure because of increased use of the Internet and other sophisticated communication technologies to solicit clients.
See also
Internet censorship and surveillance in Africa
Internet censorship and surveillance in Europe
Internet censorship and surveillance in Oceania
Internet censorship and surveillance in the Americas
Global Internet Freedom Task Force – an initiative of the U.S. Department of State
International Freedom of Expression Exchange – monitors Internet censorship worldwide
Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders)
The Web Index by the World Wide Web Foundation, a measure of the World Wide Web’s contribution to social, economic and political progress in countries across the world.
References
External links
OpenNet Initiative web site.
Reporters Without Borders web site.
"Internet Monitor", a research project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to evaluate, describe, and summarize the means, mechanisms, and extent of Internet access, content controls and activity around the world.
"Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)", A free software project under the Tor Project which collects and processes network measurements with the aim of detecting network anomalies, such as censorship, surveillance and traffic manipulation.
"Mapping Digital Media: Reports and Publications", Open Society Foundations.
"Web Index", a composite statistic designed and produced by the World Wide Web Foundation, is a multi-dimensional measure of the World Wide Web’s contribution to development and human rights globally. It covered 86 countries as of 2014, incorporating indicators that assess universal access, freedom and openness, relevant content, and empowerment, which indicate economic, social, and political impacts of the Web.
Internet Censorship, A Comparative Study, Jonathan Werve, Global Integrity, 19 February 2008, puts online censorship in cross-country context.
Internet censorship in Asia
Censorship in Asia
Surveillance |
3846103 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSPro | CSPro | CSPro, short for the Census and Survey Processing System, is a public domain data processing software package developed by the U.S. Census Bureau and ICF International. Serpro S.A. was involved in past development. Funding for development comes primarily from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The main purpose of this software framework is to design an application for data collection and processing.
CSPro was designed and implemented through a joint effort by the developers of two earlier software packages that were used to capture, edit, and tabulate census and survey data on DOS-based machines: the Integrated Microcomputer Processing System (IMPS), developed by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Integrated System for Survey Analysis (ISSA), developed by Serpro S.A. As a result, CSPro is founded on more than 30 years of development.
The software can be run on Windows-based OS (Vista, 7, 8, and 10—Linux and IOS operating systems are not supported) to design applications able to be deployed on Android and Windows family OS following its "Build Once, Deploy Many" ability. These applications can be used for mobile survey data collection (via Smartphones or tablets), or for office-based collection (via laptops or desktops). The public domain distribution is binary-only. Support for Unicode data entry began with version 5.
A CSPro designed application can be a dynamic and intelligent questionnaire for entering, editing, tabulating, mapping, and disseminating census and survey data. Also, the simple IDE of the CSPro Designer can be used to implement sophisticated Information System in various fields such as Monitoring and Evaluation, Business Administration, Logistics and so on.
This package is widely used worldwide by statistical agencies, international organizations, NGOs, consulting firms, colleges and universities, hospitals, and private sector groups, in more than 160 countries. Major international household survey programs, such as Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) also use CSPro for Census and Survey works.
While the program uses a simple graphical interface (IDE), CSPro also contains a sophisticated programming language that can be used to create highly customized applications. Beginning users can program simple quality control checks, and advanced users can write dynamic applications using his procedural and object oriented programming language.
It remains actively in development (as of spring 2021). With latest improvements, CSPro designed application support:
SQLite and SQL language;
Relational database support on device and servers;
Improved data security through transparent data encryption and support of best in class hashing/salting algorithms;
Multiple questions per screen;
Mobile Mapping: Displaying dynamic mapping and deal with geographic informations (online maps, Tiled offline basemap and points (all features: polygon, polyline, line is supported on version 7.7));
Introduction of Objects programming in CSPro logic;
CSS, HTML5, JavaScript via templated report, CAPI text, Webview/Webview 2 and CSPro-Javascript interface;
PHP through CSWeb;
Powerful and comprehensive paradata for complete and intelligent monitoring of the data collection step;
Smart application installation using barcode/QR Code;
Multiple programming language improvements (smart synchronization (including on local Dropbox and FTP servers, dynamic translation, etc.));
The source code of the CSWeb API and the help system have been released to the public, but generally it is not open source. In addition to the help system disseminated with CSPro, an active users forum is maintained as well.
See also
Epi Info
X-12-ARIMA
Data Processing
Data collection system
CAPI
Survey data collection
Information System
References
External links
CSPro Users
Serpro S.A.
Public-domain software
United States Census Bureau
Data processing
Statistical survey software
Information systems
Integrated development environments |
20011881 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnixWare%20NonStop%20Clusters | UnixWare NonStop Clusters | NonStop Clusters (NSC) was an add-on package for SCO UnixWare that allowed creation of fault-tolerant single-system image clusters of machines running UnixWare. NSC was one of the first commercially available highly available clustering solutions for commodity hardware.
Description
NSC provided a full single-system image cluster:
Process migrationProcesses started on any node in the cluster could be migrated to any other node. Migration could be either manual or automatic (for load balancing).
Single process spaceAll processes were visible from all nodes in the cluster. The standard Unix process management commands (ps, kill and so on) were used for process management.
Single rootAll files and directories were available from all nodes of the cluster
Single I/O spaceAll I/O devices were available from any node in the cluster. The normal device naming convention was modified to add a node number to all device names. For example, the second serial port on node 3 would be /dev/tty01h.3. A partition on a SCSI disk on node 2 might be /dev/rdsk/n2c3b0t4d0s3.
Single IPC spaceThe standard UnixWare IPC mechanisms (shared memory, semaphores, message queues, Unix domain sockets) were all available for communication between processes running on any node.
Cluster virtual IP addressNSC provided a single IP address for access to the cluster from other systems. Incoming connections were load-balanced between the available cluster nodes.
The NSC system was designed for high availability—all system services were either redundant or would fail-over from one node to another in the advent of a node crash. The disk subsystem was either accessible from multiple nodes (using a Fibre Channel SAN or dual-ported SCSI) or used cross-node mirroring in a similar fashion to DRBD.
History
NSC was developed for Tandem by Locus Computing Corporation based on their Transparent Network Computing technology. During the lifetime of the project Locus were acquired by Platinum Technology Inc. The NSC team and product were then transferred to Tandem.
Initially NSC was developed for the Compaq Integrity XC
packaged cluster, consisting of between two and six Compaq ProLiant servers and one or two Compaq ServerNet switches to provide the cluster interconnect inter-node communication path. In this form NSC was commercialized by Compaq and only supported on qualified hardware from Compaq, and later Fujitsu-Siemens.
In 2000 NSC was modified to allow standard Fast Ethernet and later Gigabit Ethernet switches as the cluster interconnect and commercialized by SCO as UnixWare NonStop Clusters 7.1.1+IP.
This release of NSC was available on commodity PC hardware, although SCO recommended that systems with more than two nodes used the ServerNet interconnect.
After the sale of the SCO Unix business to Caldera Systems it was announced that the long-term goal was to integrate the NSC product into the base UnixWare code
but this was not to be, Caldera Systems ceased distribution of NSC, replacing it by the Reliant HA clustering solution and in May 2001 Compaq announced that it would release a GPLed version of the NSC code, which eventually became OpenSSI.
References
Cluster computing
Internet Protocol based network software
High-availability cluster computing |
41467178 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactiveX | ReactiveX | In software programming, ReactiveX (also known as Reactive Extensions) is a set of tools allowing imperative programming languages to operate on sequences of data regardless of whether the data is synchronous or asynchronous. It provides a set of sequence operators that operate on each item in the sequence. It is an implementation of reactive programming and provides a blueprint for the tools to be implemented in multiple programming languages.
Overview
ReactiveX is an API for asynchronous programming with observable streams.
Asynchronous programming allows programmers to call functions and then have the functions "callback" when they are done, usually by giving the function the address of another function to execute when it is done. Programs designed in this way often avoid the overhead of having many threads constantly starting and stopping.
Observable streams (i.e. streams that can be observed) in the context of Reactive Extensions are like event emitters that emit three events: next, error, and complete. An observable emits next events until it either emits an error event or a complete event. However, at that point it will not emit any more events, unless it is subscribed to again.
Motivation
For sequences of data, it combines the advantages of iterators with the flexibility of event-based asynchronous programming. It also works as a simple promise, eliminating the pyramid of doom that results from multiple layers of callbacks.
Observables and observers
ReactiveX is a combination of ideas from the observer and the iterator patterns and from functional programming.
An observer subscribes to an observable sequence. The sequence then sends the items to the observer one at a time, usually by calling the provided callback function. The observer handles each one before processing the next one. If many events come in asynchronously, they must be stored in a queue or dropped. In ReactiveX, an observer will never be called with an item out of order or (in a multi-threaded context) called before the callback has returned for the previous item. Asynchronous calls remain asynchronous and may be handled by returning an observable.
It is similar to the iterators pattern in that if a fatal error occurs, it notifies the observer separately (by calling a second function). When all the items have been sent, it completes (and notifies the observer by calling a third function). The Reactive Extensions API also borrows many of its operators from iterator operators in other programming languages.
Reactive Extensions is different from functional reactive programming as the Introduction to Reactive Extensions explains:
It is sometimes called "functional reactive programming" but this is a misnomer. ReactiveX may be functional, and it may be reactive, but "functional reactive programming" is a different animal. One main point of difference is that functional reactive programming operates on values that change continuously over time, while ReactiveX operates on discrete values that are emitted over time. (See Conal Elliott's work for more-precise information on functional reactive programming.)
Reactive operators
An operator is a function that takes one observable (the source) as its first argument and returns another observable (the destination, or outer observable). Then for every item that the source observable emits, it will apply a function to that item, and then emit it on the destination Observable. It can even emit another Observable on the destination observable. This is called an inner observable.
An operator that emits inner observables can be followed by another operator that in some way combines the items emitted by all the inner observables and emits the item on its outer observable. Examples include:
switchAll – subscribes to each new inner observable as soon as it is emitted and unsubscribes from the previous one.
mergeAll – subscribes to all inner observables as they are emitted and outputs their values in whatever order it receives them.
concatAll – subscribes to each inner observable in order and waits for it to complete before subscribing to the next observable.
Operators can be chained together to create complex data flows that filter events based on certain criteria. Multiple operators can be applied to the same observable.
Some of the operators that can be used in Reactive Extensions may be familiar to programmers who use functional programming language, such as map, reduce, group, and zip. There are many other operators available in Reactive Extensions, though the operators available in a particular implementation for a programming language may vary.
Reactive operator examples
Here is an example of using the map and reduce operators. We create an observable from a list of numbers. The map operator will then multiply each number by two and return an observable. The reduce operator will then sum up all the numbers provided to it (the value of 0 is the starting point). Calling subscribe will register an observer that will observe the values from the observable produced by the chain of operators. With the subscribe method, we are able to pass in an error-handling function, called whenever an error is emitted in the observable, and a completion function when the observable has finished emitting items.
sourceObservable = Rx.Observable.from([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);
sourceObservable
.map(function(number) { return number * 2; })
.reduce(function(sum, number) { return sum + number; }, 0)
.subscribe(function(number){
console.log(number);
}, function(error) {
console.error(error);
}, function() {
console.log('done');
})
The above example uses the Rx.js implementation of Reactive Extensions for the JavaScript programming language.
History
Reactive Extensions (Rx) was invented by the Cloud Programmability Team at Microsoft around 2011, as a byproduct of a larger effort called Volta. It was originally intended to provide an abstraction for events across different tiers in an application to support tier splitting in Volta. The project's logo represents an electric eel, which is a reference to Volta. The extensions suffix in the name is a reference to the Parallel Extensions technology which was invented around the same time; the two are considered complementary.
The initial implementation of Rx was for .NET Framework and was released on June 21st, 2011. Later, the team started the implementation of Rx for other platforms, including JavaScript and C++. The technology was released as open source in late 2012, initially on CodePlex. Later, the code moved to GitHub.
See also
Erik Meijer (computer scientist)
References
External links
ReactiveX, reactive extensions website with documentation and list of implementation
Programming tools
Articles with example JavaScript code
Free and open-source software
Microsoft free software
Software using the Apache license
Software using the MIT license
2011 software |
40670216 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyanka%20Chaturvedi | Priyanka Chaturvedi | Priyanka Vickram Chaturvedi (born 19 November 1979) is an Indian politician serving as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra and Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena. Prior to this, she was a member and one of the National Spokespersons of Indian National Congress.
She has also been a columnist for Tehelka, Daily News and Analysis and Firstpost. As a trustee of two NGOs, she works to promote children's education, women's empowerment and health. She also runs a book review blog which is amongst the top ten weblogs on books in India.
Personal life
Chaturvedi was born on 19 November 1979 and raised in Mumbai. Her family comes from Uttar Pradesh. She attended St. Joseph's High School, Juhu in 1995, graduating in Commerce from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics, Vile Parle in 1999. She is married and has two children.
Career
Chaturvedi started her career as Director of MPower Consultants, a Media, PR and event management company. She is Trustee of Prayas Charitable Trust which runs two schools to provide education to over 200 under-privileged children. In 2010, she was selected as a participant in ISB's 10,000 Women Entrepreneurs Certificate programme, a global initiative supported by the Goldman Sachs Foundation for women entrepreneurs.
Chaturvedi hosts an interview programme called Meri Kahaani on Sansad TV.
Politics
Indian national Congress
She joined Congress in 2010, becoming General Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress from North-West Mumbai in 2012.
Chaturvedi has a significant presence in social media and is known for defending the policies of the opposition Congress party on Twitter. She criticized Narendra Modi for not calling out Smriti Irani on lying and filing false affidavit of her educational credentials. Further, she took a dig at Irani by singing a parody to the theme of Irani's previous TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi as "Kyuki Mantri Bhi Kabhi Graduate Thi".
On 17 April 2019, she posted on Twitter to express her dismay about UPCC (Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee) reinstating some party workers who were earlier suspended for their unruly behavior with her.
Shiv Sena
On 19 April 2019 she joined Shiv Sena in the presence Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray. At the time of joining Shiv Sena she expressed to work as a common Shiv Sainik under the leadership of Uddhav Thackray.
Overseas Engagements
In 2015, as a member of a delegation of young political leaders chosen by the UK High Commission and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK, she visited London to study and understand their democracy. She also participated in "Asian Forum on Global Governance" program jointly organized by Observer Research Foundation and Zeit Stiftung in the same year.
In Feb 2017, Priyanka had spoken on the topic of “Impact of Demonetisation on Indian economy” in Melbourne, Australia at an event hosted by former Ministerial Adviser Mr Nitin Gupta. Priyanka had also visited the ISKCON Temple in Albert Park, and the Richmond Football Club during her Melbourne trip.
Positions held
2019 : Appointed as Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena
2020: Elected as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra
See also
Uddhav Thackeray ministry
References
External links
ShivSena official website
Living people
1979 births
Maharashtra politicians
Former members of Indian National Congress from Maharashtra
Shiv Sena politicians
Indian Hindus
Politicians from Mumbai |
12040220 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinfoil%20Hat%20Linux | Tinfoil Hat Linux | Tinfoil Hat Linux (THL) was a compact security-focused Linux distribution designed for high security developed by The Shmoo Group. The first version (1.000) was released in February 2002. It appears to be a low priority project . Its image files and source are available in gzip format. THL can be used on almost any modern PC, as it requires an Intel 80386 or better computer, with at least 8 MB of RAM. The distribution fits on a single HD floppy. The small footprint provides additional benefits beyond making the system easy to understand and verify- the computer need not even have a hard drive, making it easier to "sanitize" the computer after use.
The logo of Tinfoil Hat is Tux, the Linux mascot, wearing a tinfoil hat.
The Shmoo Group Web site says "It started as a secure, single floppy, bootable Linux distribution for storing PGP keys and then encrypting, signing and wiping files. At some point it became an exercise in over-engineering."
Security features
Tinfoil Hat uses a number of measures to defeat hardware and software surveillance methods like keystroke logging, video camera, and TEMPEST:
Encryption — GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) public key cryptography software is included in THL.
Data retrieval — All temporary files are created on an encrypted ramdisk that is destroyed on shutdown. Even the GPG keyfile information can be stored encrypted on the floppy.
Keystroke monitoring — THL has gpggrid, a wrapper for GPG that lets you use a video game style character entry system instead of typing in your passphrase. Keystroke loggers get a set of grid points, instead of a passphrase.
Power usage and other side channel attacks — Under the Paranoid options, a copy of GPG runs in the background generating keys and encrypting random documents. This makes it harder to determine when real encryption is taking place.
Even reading the screen over the user's shoulder is very hard when Tinfoil Hat is switched to paranoid mode, which sets the screen to a very low contrast.
Applications
An advantage of THL is that it can be used on virtually any modern PC using the x86 processor architecture. For example, one might install it on a computer that is kept in a locked room, not connected to any network, and used only for cryptographically signing keys. It is fairly easy to create the Tinfoil Hat booting floppy with Microsoft Windows. Verifying the checksum can be more tricky. The text of the documentation is salted with just a few jokes, which reinforces their humor by the stark contrast with the serious and paranoiac tone of the surrounding text- the very name pokes fun at itself, as Tinfoil Hats are commonly ascribed to paranoiacs as a method of protecting oneself from mind-control waves.
Tinfoil Hat Linux requires one to work in a text-only environment in Linux, i.e. starting straight off with a Bourne shell and the editor vi, not a graphical user interface. It uses BusyBox instead of the normal util-linux, the GNU coreutils (formerly known as fileutils, shellutils and textutils) and other common Unix tools. Tinfoil Hat also offers the GNU nano text editor.
See also
List of LiveDistros
Damn Small Linux
Security-focused operating system
OpenBSD
References
External links
Official website
Evilmutant.com article about Tinfoil Hat Linux, with screenshots
Another evilmutant.com article giving links to other media which picked up the previous article
Cryptographic software
Floppy-based Linux distributions
Floppy disk-based operating systems
RPM-based Linux distributions
Linux distributions |
49738932 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double%20Union | Double Union | Double Union is a San Francisco hacker/maker space. Double Union was founded by women in 2013 with the explicit goal of fostering a creative safe space. The organization’s mission is to be a community workshop where women and nonbinary people can work on projects in a comfortable, welcoming environment.
Members hold public and members-only events for activities and workshops like zine making, paper circuits and electronics, coding, sewing, 3-dimensional printing, lightning talks, print making and many others. Key carrying members are allowed to invite guests of any gender.
History
DU was founded in 2013 by a group of about ten women including Amelia Greenhall, Valerie Aurora, Liz Henry and Ari Lacenski from their connections at other hackerspaces; at The Ada Initiative's feminist unconference, AdaCamp; and through Geekfeminism.org, collecting initial funding through an Indiegogo campaign. Later that year, Lacenski left the group, claiming that two unnamed cofounders practiced a form of activism that she considered too aggressive. There is a board of directors and a structure in place for voting in new members; as of 2015, there are around 150–200 members.
DU's logo is a bright pink Unicode character (U+22D3), from the Mathematical Operators block.
Originally located in the Mission district, Double Union relocated to the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco in Fall 2015 after their building was sold by the landlord. To fund the move and several equipment purchases, Double Union undertook an Indiegogo campaign, which finished at 106 percent of its goal.
Physical space
For its first two years, the space was in a 700-square-foot room in the Mission neighborhood, at 14th and Mission in the Fog Building. As of 2015, the new space is in the Potrero neighborhood in San Francisco.
Projects
App
Several Double Union members have created an app for managing hackerspace membership applications, Arooo. Arooo is free to use and is licensed under the GNU GPL.
ODD
Double Union created the Open Diversity Data project. The project aggregates diversity data for a wide array of tech companies.
See also
Liberating Ourselves Locally
Mothership HackerMoms
Noisebridge
References
External links
Culture of San Francisco
DIY culture
Feminist collectives
Hackerspaces
Hackerspaces in the San Francisco Bay Area
Maker Studios
Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco
Feminist organizations in the United States
Women in California |
36540525 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6rg%20Hacker | Jörg Hacker | Jörg Hinrich Hacker (born 13 February 1952) is a German microbiologist. He served as president of the Robert Koch Institute from 2008 to 2010 and of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina from 2010 to 2020. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Medical Microbiology.
Early life and education
Born in Grevesmühlen, Mecklenburg, Hacker studied biology from 1970 to 1974 at the Martin Luther University in Halle and obtained his PhD in 1979.
Career
From 1980 to 1988 Hacker worked as a junior researcher at the University of Würzburg, where he obtained his habilitation in microbiology in 1986.
From 1988 until 1993, Hacker was professor of microbiology at the University of Würzburg. In 1993 he moved to the chair for Molecular Infection Biology, which he held until 2008. From 2003 to 2009, he was vice president of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. From March 2008 to March 2010, he succeeded Reinhard Kurth as president of the Robert Koch Institute.
On 1 October 2009, Hacker was elected president of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. The solemn inauguration ceremony took place on 26 February 2010 and his official starting date was 1 March 2010. In 2020, he was succeeded by Gerald Haug.
In 2011, Hacker was appointed by Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Federal Government’s Ethics Commission on a Safe Energy Supply, co-chaired by Matthias Kleiner and Klaus Töpfer. In 2017, he was part of the selection committee chaired by Jules A. Hoffmann that chose Stewart Cole as director of the Institut Pasteur. From 2017 until 2019, he was a member of the German Ministry of Health’s International Advisory Board on Global Health, chaired by Ilona Kickbusch.
Work
Hacker's main research interests are the molecular analysis of bacterial pathogens, their spread and variability, as well as their interactions with host cells. From 2001 to 2008 he served as co-coordinator of the BMBF programs PathoGenoMik and PathoGenoMik Plus. Hacker is responsible for coining the term "pathology island" to describe a region of a bacterial genome that encodes disease causing traits.
Other activities
University of Würzburg, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2013)
German Cancer Aid, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2012)
Free University of Berlin, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2012)
Leibniz Association, Member of the Senate
Robert Koch Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors (since 1998)
Centre Virchow-Villermé, Member of the International Advisory Board
Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Deutscher Zukunftspreis, Member of the Board of Trustees
World Health Summit, Member of the Council
Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board (2014–2017)
Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Member of the Board of Trustees (2013–2017)
Institut Pasteur, Member of the Scientific Council (2007‐2015)
University of Marburg, Member of the Board of Trustees (2006–2016)
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Member of the Supervisory Board (2005–2013)
References
External links
German microbiologists
1952 births
Living people
People from Grevesmühlen
University of Würzburg alumni
University of Würzburg faculty
Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Robert Koch Institute people
Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy
Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Presidents of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina |
60664470 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik%20%28company%29 | Epik (company) | Epik is an American domain registrar and web hosting company known for providing services to websites that host far-right, neo-Nazi, and other extremist materials. It has been described as a haven for the far-right because of its willingness to provide services to far-right websites that have been denied service by other Internet service providers.
Some of Epik's notable clients have included social network Gab and the imageboard website 8chan. In 2021, the Parler social network moved its domain registration to Epik when it was denied hosting and other web services after it was used to help plan the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Epik has also provided hosting and registrar services to Patriots.win, formerly TheDonald.win, an independent far-right forum that has served as the successor for the r/The_Donald subreddit that was banned in June 2020.
Epik was founded in 2009 by Rob Monster, and is based in Washington State. In September and October 2021, hackers identifying themselves as a part of Anonymous released several caches of data obtained from Epik in a large-scale data breach.
History
Epik was founded in 2009 by Rob Monster, who serves as the company's chief executive officer. Until 2018, Epik primarily focused on domain trading and mostly stayed out of the public spotlight. In 2018, the company came to public attention when they decided to provide services to Gab.
Epik is primarily known for its domain name registration services, and describes itself as the "Swiss bank of the domain industry". In the late 2010s, following a series of acquisitions, Epik also began providing an increasing variety of other web services including web hosting, content delivery network (CDN) services, and DDoS protection.
Acquisitions
In February 2019, it was announced that Epik had acquired BitMitigate, an American cybersecurity company based in Vancouver, Washington. BitMitigate protects websites against potential threats including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The company continues to operate as a division of Epik, and BitMitigate's founder Nicholas Lim briefly served as Epik's chief technology officer.
Epik acquired web hosting company Sibyl Systems Ltd. in the second quarter of 2019. Sibyl Systems was founded on October 22, 2018, and according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was possibly based in Norway or in England. Shortly after the company was founded, they began providing hosting services to Gab, which had just been terminated service by its previous web host due to the service's use by the perpetrator of the October 27, 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. Sibyl Systems was described in a February 2019 profile by the SPLC as a "shadowy operation with little transparency on its website, a murky history of ownership and no fixed base of operations".
Termination of services to Epik
When Epik began providing services to 8chan in August 2019, after the imageboard was taken offline by its host when it was discovered that the perpetrator of the 2019 El Paso shooting allegedly posted his manifesto on the site, several service providers stopped providing services to Epik. Later on the day Epik began servicing 8chan, Epik's primary hardware and connectivity provider, Voxility, terminated their relationship with the company, briefly taking 8chan and other Epik customers offline. That week, when Amazon was informed they were hosting a Gab subdomain, Amazon took down the site and began working with Epik to make sure they were not indirectly providing support to 8chan. However, Amazon continued to provide services to Epik. On August 9, cloud hosting provider Linode informed Epik they would be terminating services to the company.
In October 2020, financial services provider PayPal terminated service for Epik due to financial risk concerns relating to the company's alternative currency called "Masterbucks", which can be used to purchase services from Epik or can be exchanged for U.S. currency. Mashable alleged that PayPal's concerns were related to the potential for money laundering, and that PayPal terminated service because Epik allegedly had not taken the proper legal steps to offer an alternate currency after being made aware of the issue a month prior. Mashable also reported that the termination was partly due to concerns by PayPal that the site was encouraging tax evasion by advertising the "tax advantages" of using Masterbucks. Epik subsequently published what Mashable described as "a series of unhinged open letters" targeting "PayPal, Hunter Biden, Bloomberg News, and several Avengers" and accusing PayPal of terminating service because they were biased against conservatives.
Data breach
In September and October 2021, hackers identifying themselves as a part of the Anonymous hacktivist group published a large amount of data obtained from Epik in a series of three releases. On September 13, 2021, the group published a press release announcing they had obtained access to data including domain purchase and transfer details, account credentials and logins, payment history, employee emails, and unidentified private keys. The hackers claimed they had obtained "a decade's worth of data", including all customer data and records for all domains ever hosted or registered through the company, and which included poorly encrypted passwords and other sensitive data stored in plaintext. The Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) organization announced later that day that they were working to curate the leaked data for public download, and said that it consisted of "180gigabytes of user, registration, forwarding and other information". Journalists and security researchers subsequently confirmed the veracity of the hack and the types of data that had been exposed. An engineer performing an impact assessment for an Epik client told The Daily Dot that "They are fully compromised end-to-end... Maybe the worst I’ve ever seen in my 20-year career". The data was later confirmed to include approximately 15million unique email addresses, which belonged both to customers and non-customers whose data had been scraped from WHOIS records. Anonymous released additional data on September 29 and on October 4. The second release contained 300gigabytes of bootable disk images and API keys for third-party services used by Epik; the third contained additional disk images and data belonging to the Republican Party of Texas, an Epik customer.
On September 13, the day the breach was announced and the first portion of data was released, Epik said in statements to news outlets that they were "not aware of any breach". When the company did not acknowledge the breach, the attackers vandalized Epik's support website. On September 15, the company sent an email to customers notifying them of "an alleged security incident". Epik CEO Rob Monster confirmed the hack in a September 16 public video conference, which The Daily Dot described as "chaotic and bizarre" and which Le Monde characterized as "possibly one of the strangest responses to a computer security incident in history". The company publicly confirmed the breach on September 17, and began emailing customers to inform them on September 19.
Company
Epik was founded in 2009 by Rob Monster, who serves as the company's chief executive officer. The company is based in Sammamish, Washington. , Epik is the 21st largest domain registrar in the United States and 48th largest globally, as measured by the number of domains registered through the company.
Epik board members have included Braden Pollock and Tal Moore. Joseph Peterson was Epik's director of operations from 2017 until 2019. Rob Davis serves as senior vice president for strategy and communications. Moore left the board in December 2018, over the company's choice to host Gab. Peterson left the company in 2019, and said that he left shortly after Monster began a company staff meeting by asking employees to watch the video of the Christchurch mosque shootings, which he said would prove to them that the attack had been faked. Pollock resigned in June 2020, and said that his departure was because he and Monster "don't share the same ideology" and because he disagreed with the company's direction.
Hosting of far-right and illicit content
Epik is known for providing services to websites with far-right content, such as the social network Gab, video hosting service BitChute, and conspiracy theory website InfoWars. It was described in 2019 by Vice as "a safehaven for the extreme right" and in 2021 by The Seattle Times as "a home for far-right websites" because of its willingness to host far-right websites that have been denied service by other Internet service providers. In 2021, The Daily Telegraph wrote that Epik was "a safe harbour for websites said to be enabling the spread far-right extremism and carrying Neo-Nazi content"; the same year, Fortune called the company the "right wing's best friend online". NPR reported in February 2021 that "when websites flooded with hate speech or harmful disinformation become too radioactive for the Internet, the sites often turn to [Epik] for a lifeline."
Epik has provided services for websites, platforms, and groups including Parler, 8chan, Gab, BitChute, Patriots.win, The Daily Stormer, InfoWars, One America News Network, AR15.com, the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers. Bobby Allyn writing for NPR has described the websites Epik services: "Spend a few minutes on these sites, conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, vaccines and mass shootings are not hard to find, not to mention a steady stream of bigoted content about Jews, women and people of color."
Epik describes itself as a protector of free speech, and its CEO Rob Monster has defended its decisions to host extremist content as being a part of Epik's commitment to "welcome all views, without bias or preference". Monster has said he is repudiating "cancel culture" and Big Tech. In May 2019, the Counter Extremism Project's Joshua Fisher-Birch criticized Epik for this stance, saying that, "while Epik portrays this as a noble exercise in anti-censorship, they're making a business decision to continue to amplify voices calling for violence." In February 2021, Michael Edison Hayden of the SPLC said that although hate speech can be found throughout the internet, including on mainstream social networks like Facebook and Twitter, "The difference is there are people with terroristic ambitions plotting out in the open, producing propaganda that they seek to use to kind of encourage violence. And those are the kind of websites Rob Monster is willing to pick up."
Parler
In January 2021, the alt-tech social network Parler transferred its domain name registration to Epik, following the termination of its hosting and support services by other providers on account of it being "overrun" with death threats and celebrations of violence. According to Fortune, Epik provided Parler with advice on running the service, including to add more moderators, improve systems to detect harmful posts, and change their terms of service.
8chan
On August 5, 2019, Epik competitor Cloudflare announced that in the wake of the 2019 El Paso shooting they would no longer be providing services to 8chan, a far-right imageboard known as a location for hateful content and child pornography, which the perpetrator of the shooting had allegedly used immediately prior to the attack to post a manifesto justifying his actions. The same day that 8chan was removed from Cloudflare, Epik began providing hosting services, and Monster released a statement explaining their decision. Later that day, Epik's primary hardware and connectivity provider Voxility banned Epik from renting their server space. Voxility's vice president of business development stated, "We have made the connection that at least two or three of the latest mass shootings in the U.S. were connected with [Epik and BitMitigate]. At some point, somebody needed to make the decision on where the limit is between what is illegal and what is freedom of speech and today it had to be us." The Voxility ban took 8chan offline, along with The Daily Stormer and other Epik customers. On August 6, Epik reversed course and announced that they would not provide hosting services to 8chan; on August 7, Ars Technica noted that Epik had only ceased hosting their content and was still providing 8chan with DNS services.
Gab
Epik received media attention in early November 2018 for registering Gab, an American alt-tech social networking service known for its far-right userbase, after it was ousted by GoDaddy for allowing "content on the site that both promotes and encourages violence against people". This came shortly after it was revealed that the perpetrator of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting had used the service to post "hateful content". Tal Moore, a member of Epik's board, resigned in December 2018 over the company's involvement with Gab. On November 7, 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro sent a subpoena to Epik requesting "any and all documents which are related in any way to Gab" after Gab registered its domains onto Epik. Gab posted screenshots of the subpoena letter in a tweet on the day the subpoena was sent, despite being asked to keep the letter confidential. The tweet was deleted hours later. In an email statement to Ars Technica, Monster stated that "the news of the subpoena was not intended for public consumption" and that "we are cooperating with their inquiry".
Patriots.win
Epik provides hosting to Patriots.win, previously known as TheDonald.win, the independent far-right web forum that was created as a successor to the r/The_Donald subreddit banned by Reddit in June 2020. The website has been labeled "a magnet for extreme discourse" by the Financial Times. It has been likened to other clients of Epik's, Gab and 8chan, as those sites were also created to bypass hate speech policies on more mainstream sites.
According to a January 16, 2021 report from the Wall Street Journal, Epik had threatened to take TheDonald.win offline over the forum failing to remove white supremacist, racist, and violent content. The Journal also reported that Jody Williams, TheDonald.win's owner, had received multiple requests from the FBI for user information due to threatening posts. Williams had struggled to moderate the forum's racist, antisemitic, and violent posts over the prior months, and some of TheDonald.win's volunteer moderators had responded by thwarting Williams's efforts to take down the violent and objectionable content on the forum. Williams and his family had also received daily death threats from the users he banned from the forum. On January 20, 2021, due to an internal power struggle over the TheDonald.win domain between the moderators and Williams, a new forum called Patriots.win was created and TheDonald.win was shut down by Williams on January 21. , Epik was providing services to Patriots.win.
The Daily Stormer
In August 2017, BitMitigate, an American cybersecurity company began hosting American neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and Holocaust denial commentary and message board website The Daily Stormer. This was in response to GoDaddy and Cloudflare terminating services for the site after it published an article mocking Heather Heyer, the victim of the vehicle ramming attack that occurred at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that same month. When Epik acquired BitMitigate in 2019, it was still hosting the website. Monster has said that when Epik discovered it was providing services to the website, it stopped doing so. In a 2021 interview with NPR, Monster said that Epik's connection to The Daily Stormer was "regrettable", and that "The greatest cost of acquiring BitMitigate was not the amount of cash that we paid to buy the technology, but the entanglement."
BitChute
Epik is the domain registrar for the video sharing platform BitChute, which is known for accommodating far-right individuals and conspiracy theorists, and for hosting hateful content.
Lack of response to reports of illegal activity
Wired wrote in 2018 that Epik has a history of not responding to reports of illegal activity on the websites they register, which the magazine noted is unusual for domain registrars based in the United States. Pharmaceutical watchdog website LegitScript reported in 2018 that they had alerted Epik to the sale of illegal drugs and counterfeit medications on websites registered by Epik, and that Epik had refused to act upon the information without a court order.
See also
DDoS-Guard
References
External links
Alt-tech
American companies established in 2009
Companies based in King County, Washington
Domain name registrars
Internet technology companies of the United States
Neo-Nazism in the United States
Web hosting
Sammamish, Washington
Technology companies established in 2009 |
52941039 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility%20apps | Accessibility apps | Accessibility apps are mobile apps that increase the accessibility of a device for individuals with disabilities. Accessibility apps are applications that increase the accessibility of a device or technology for individuals with disabilities. Applications, also known as, application software, are programs that are designed for end users to be able to perform specific tasks. There are many different types of apps, some examples include, word processor, web browser, media player, console game, photo editor, accounting application and flight simulator. Accessibility in general refers to making the design of products and environment more accommodating to those with disabilities. Accessibility apps can also include making a current version of software or hardware more accessible by adding features. Accessibility apps main aim is to remove any barriers to technological goods and services, making the app available to any group of society to use. A basic example is that a person who experiences vision impairments is able to access technology through enabling voice recognition and text-to-speech software. Accessibility apps are closely related to assistive technology.
History of Apps
The term apps as society knows it is a relatively new term. Strain (2015) mentions that Founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, is responsible for the way society thinks of mobile apps. In 1983, Jobs made a speech at a technology conference in Aspen, US where he predicted the “evolution of a new digital distribution system”. Jobs described this system similar to a record store where it will be possible in the future to download software over phone lines. The term society knows as apps was a further development from early PDAs that held the game Snake on the Nokia 6110 phone. PDAs stands for personal digital assistant and is a small handheld computer that is capable of providing emails and internet access. The Apple App store was launched on 10 July 2008 with 500 apps. The Google Play Store, which was originally known as the Android Market was launched on 22 October 2008. It is interesting to note that the iPhone 3G was released just a day after the App Store opened. This was the first iPhone which was able to connect to 3G. Today, as of 2020 there is 2.2 million apps available to download on the Apple App store. Matthew Panzarino, co-editor of TechCrunch, believes that there are three phases of app history in mobile technology. Firstly, the initial gaming and utilities apps available in mobiles. This was seen in early PDAs and the first-generation iPhone. Secondly, apps that were focused around grabbing the user's attention and dominating the mobile home screen. Thirdly, today's phase in which apps are service layers, purpose built and utilise technology such as hardware sensors, location, history of use and predictive computation. Today in 2021 apps are not only present in technology such as mobiles and computers but also wearable technology such as watches.
History of Accessible Technology
Examples of accessible technology dates back to the 1800s. In 1808 Pellegrino Turri built one of the first typewriters to help a blind friend write. In 1916 Harvey Fletcher built the Western Electric Model 2A hearing aid. In 1934 the first issue of talking books was released so that blind people could listen to books. In 1995 Microsoft built in accessibility features into Windows 95 instead of previously having to purchase accessibility add-on.
The Need
In recent years there has been a push from society for app developers to increase accessibility. Fifteen percent of the world's population, experience some form of disability, equivalent to one billion people. Thus, accessibility apps are incredibly relevant in today's society. The main driver behind accessibility apps stems from society's increasing need for interconnectedness and growing demand for technology. In recent years there has been improvement in making technology more accessible for those with disability. However, the 2018 Australian Human Rights Commission states that more measurements need to be put in place in order to achieve equal access and for all groups of society to reap the benefits from today's digitally connected society. Pick and Azari (2008) highlight the importance in educating society about the progress but also the future around accessibility and technology.
Accessibility Features in iPhones and Computers
People who experience disabilities are able to increase the accessibility of technology they already own through enabling specific features. For example, within the settings app on iPhones, there are several features that increase accessibility such as ‘Assistive Touch’, ‘Classic Invert Colours’, ‘Colour Filters’ and ‘Magnifier’. These adjustments found in iPhone settings have the ability to improve accessibility for people who experience disabilities such as motor impairments, visual impairments, colour blindness, and insensitivities. Hence, it is not just independent apps but also features within software that are able to increase accessibility for individuals.
Low-level coding—Extremely complex yet incredibly customizable. This software creation process is expensive and time-consuming, but you can do just about everything with it.
Accessibility should be highly prioritized by smartphone makers to give disabled people an easy access to communicate with their device. In recent years progress are being made and more tools are constantly being developed to aid accessibility in mobile device. Especially the Apple iPhones.
Benefits
New technology, such as accessibility apps provide a platform to increase accessibility to services for people with disability. The lower costs of services made available through new technologies can improve equality amongst groups with disability.
The benefits of new technology go beyond accessibility apps. Teachers have found that new technology has made learning material more accessible to students, and in turn, increased the number of students able to enrol in university courses.
Apps have been developed to allow persons with disability to control their household and complete daily tasks through voice recognition software. Additionally, apps have been created that allow a person to take a photo of their surroundings and their phone will describe the photo. For example, a person who is vision impaired can go to a supermarket, take a photo of a product, and the app will name the product. Alternatively, a person can take a photo of another person and the app will describe the person's emotions audibly.
People who live with disabilities face difficulties every day and in situations most people take for granted. The study (Mayordomo-Martinez et al., 2019) explains how an accessibility app functions and what apps need to consist of in order to achieve accessibility. The study uses ‘Access Earth’ as a prime example of an app that has made the outside environment more accessible to people. The app achieves this by locating and sharing facilities such as parking, bathrooms, and buildings in a free global community. Hence, this accessibility app has the ability to improve living conditions and individual's livelihoods. Furthermore, there are also apps, such as ‘AccessNow’ that enhance accessibility by creating global communities for members to share and search accessibility information.
A recent study (Yu, Parmanto, Dicianno, & Pramana, 2015) looked at the accessibility of mental health self-care app, iMHere, for individuals and its accessibility options for people suffering Spina Bifida. All of the participants in the study could use the app without assistance and stated they would use the app again in the future. However, there were complications in regards to accessibility of the app. Participants noted that due to each of their unique disabilities, there was a need for the app to allow personalisation by the user in order to modify content appearance such as the size and colour of text.
Case Study
This case study is an example of how new technologies can create barriers for people with disability if accessibility is not considered when designing technology. The Commonwealth Bank Eftpos system that was released in 2017 was an example of a poorly executed app that did not include accessibility features. The bank's new system was a tablet with no physical buttons or tactile keys, unlike other previous Eftpos machines. As such, the system was heavily criticised by the disabled community because of the touchscreen-only system which forced the blind and visually impaired to either give out their credit card pins when paying or to not go through with the payment. Stores with such machines were no longer accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. Such people were forced to resort to family members to complete their weekly grocery shop because the individual had stopped going to retailers with these machines. Ultimately, this app which was created without the consideration of the disabled community meant that individuals and small businesses who were both using the app suffered as a result of payments being terminated.
A few years later, in 2019, Commonwealth Bank of Australia agreed to introduce a software upgrade to the Eftpos machine to make it more accessible for the visually impaired. This was a result of a discrimination case brought against the bank and several other campaigns from vision-impaired Australians. CBA recognised its wrongdoing and introduced several actions to mend its mistakes. Firstly, they released upgrades to the software to include easier activation of the accessibility feature and other enhancements. Secondly, the bank added training available to merchants so they could understand how to use and implement the accessibility features to customers. Finally, CBA also created a video for card holders demonstrating how they can activate the accessibility features and use it when purchasing an item in store. CBA has stated that it is now committed to ensuring that accessibility will be a key factor and consideration behind further product development.
Discriminative Aspects of Technology
Technology can contain discriminatory aspects that can negatively affect individuals. Technology has the ability to violate human rights such as the right to privacy, security, safety, and the right to non-discrimination and equal treatment.
New technology poses a threat to society's right to privacy. New technology has the ability to personalise products and services by altering preferences and characteristics relevant to the user. This process is possible because of the collection, storage, use and transfer of the user's personal information. Data collection of user's personal information can be used to influence search engine results, direct marketing, and opens up the possibility of mass surveillance by the government and private sector. For this reason, people are concerned with their online privacy.
New technology has the ability to enhance but also threaten personal safety and security. For example, new technology such as drones can be used to identify threats to society or be deployed as weapons. Additionally, there is a form of technology that allows people who have diabetes to monitor their blood glucose and administers insulin when required. However, this same technology poses a threat to individuals because it enables a platform for cybercrime where abuse, exploitation, intimidation and threatening conduct becomes possible.
New technology poses a threat to the right to non-discrimination and equal treatment. Economic inequality can become apparent when a particular labor force is replaced by robotics. Although, technology can also reduce inequality, for instance, sustainable energy technologies can improve the livelihoods of those living in developing nations. The access to technological innovations can vary greatly depending on how economically, socially, and physically marginalised a group is.
New technology is becoming a part of everyday life whether it is shopping, transport, or accessing government services. For this reason, it is important that all groups of society have equal access to technology. Technology can discriminate against elderly people. For example, older people may have difficulty accessing online government services or could be at risk of personal health data being exploited. Children and young people can also be discriminated against by technology through the use of social platforms. People with disability are a group that are especially exposed to the discriminating aspects of technology. Currently, people with disability experience lower digital inclusion rate which means they are unable to access the same amount of digital platforms as those who do not have disability. Concerns remain surrounding affordability, lack of access to equipment, lack of awareness surrounding disability-specific options, insufficient touchscreen technology for people who have vision impairments, and that inaccessible communication technologies can impose employment discrimination to those with disability.
There are several frameworks and models in place on a global perspective to protect people with disability from discrimination aspects of technology. For example, in Australia, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) expect that all private sector companies and government bodies release information that is accessible to all groups of society. The Australian Government is required to test the experience of user's with disability of its services to ensure that information is accessible. In comparison, the US is known to have one of the most comprehensive legal frameworks to ensure online equality. However, these set of laws are not properly enforced and thus people with disability still lack equal online access.
Apps need to be designed with ‘universality’ and ‘inclusivity’ in mind. App developers need to create apps that are accessible and inclusive to all groups of people including those with disability and specialised needs.
References
Accessibility
Disability studies |
27732901 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonesoft%20Corporation | Stonesoft Corporation | Stonesoft Corporation was a public company that developed and sold network security solutions based in Helsinki, Finland. It was publicly owned until 2013 when it was acquired by Intel's subsidiary McAfee.
Stonesoft does business globally, with a regional headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and sales offices throughout Europe, the Middle East, and China.
In July, 2013 McAfee, a part of Intel Security, completed a tender offer to acquire all Stonesoft products and technologies. Stonesoft became a part of the McAfee Network Security Business Unit. Stonesoft firewall products were renamed McAfee Next Generation Firewall. McAfee sold Stonesoft to Forcepoint in January 2016.
History
Stonesoft started as a systems integrator in the Nordic regions of Europe. In 1994 it introduced StoneBeat, a technology for creating a high availability pair of firewalls in an active-passive configuration. In 1999, the company extended StoneBeat with a patented load balancing clustering technology, launching StoneBeat FullCluster. It was one of the first technologies certified in Check Point's OPSEC program.
In 2001, Stonesoft expanded its product set into the firewall/VPN space, becoming a direct competitor to Check Point. The StoneGate Firewall/VPN was launched on March 19, 2001. In January 2003, the company introduced the first virtual firewall/VPN solution, for IBM mainframes.
In 2010, the company released information via CERT-FI on Advanced Evasion technique (AETs) that met with skepticism in the community. Further AETs were released in 2011, and eventually verified by independent labs and researchers.
In 2012 “Stonesoft” replaced the “StoneGate” product name. From now on, Stonesoft is used both as the company and product name.
Stonesoft Corporation's product sales for Q3 2012 were circa 5.6 million euros. The product sales grew by approximately 18%. The Q3 net sales were approximately 9.2–9.3 million euros, which equals a growth by14-16%. The growth was lower than expected.
Products
Its product portfolio includes firewall/VPN devices, IPS (intrusion detection and prevention systems), and SSL VPN systems, each available as hardware appliances, software, and VMware-certified virtual appliances.
Each of the components, as well as third-party devices, can be managed from the Stonesoft Management Center. The product portfolio differentiates through unique clustering and load balancing technologies based on the company's older StoneBeat technology, originally developed for Check Point FireWall-1.
Stonesoft's current product portfolio can be divided into five major categories:
Stonesoft Firewall/VPN
Stonesoft IDS/IPS
Stonesoft SSL VPN
Stonesoft Management Center (SMC)
Stonesoft Virtualization Solutions
The Stonesoft Firewall/VPN has placed in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Network Firewalls for several years, and is currently placed in the niche quadrant. Gartner notes that Stonesoft "serves a set of placements well – usually, high availability is key or when the leaders are otherwise not welcome". The Stonesoft firewall/VPN is regarded for its "robust performance and feature set relative to company resources, and it has a loyal customer base".
The Stonesoft IPS has also placed in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Network Intrusion Prevention, currently in the “visionaries” quadrant. It is also certified by ICSA Labs Network Intrusion Prevention and Detection category, and is one of only four vendors in the consortium to achieve that certification. Stonesoft has also received favorable reviews from NSS Labs for both the next generation firewall capability (2012) and the intrusion detection and prevention system.
Controversy
In 2008, the Helsinki Court of Appeal issued a decision in a case brought against Stonesoft and several members of its management team. The court "held that two members of the company's board of directors and a former CEO through gross negligence had failed to give a profit warning in due time". The issue at hand was discrepancies between the profitability forecasted in the company's year 2000 interim reports and the actual state of the company at that time. The reports indicated the company was sound and profitable, yet "a profit warning should in fact have been issued". The District Court of Helsinki had originally dismissed the claims in a decision on November 15, 2006.
Advanced Evasion Techniques
In 2010 Stonesoft informed the public about a new evasion technique that can bypass security defences. Stonesoft defines the Advanced Evasion Techniques (AETs) as ”virtually limitless in quantity and unrecognizable by conventional detection methods. They can work on all levels of the TCP/IP stack and work across many protocols or protocol combinations.”
According to Max Nyman, Stonesoft Corporation's Senior Marketing Manager, AETs can deliver malicious code without detection and without leaving trace.
On July 23, 2012 Stonesoft released a free tool that enables organisations to test their network security.
References
External links
Semi-official community Web site
Advanced Evasion Techniques
McAfee Next Generation Firewall
Computer security companies
Computer security software companies
Computer companies of Finland
Software companies of Finland
McAfee
Networking companies
Networking hardware companies
Deep packet inspection
Companies based in Helsinki
Computer companies established in 1987
Software companies established in 1987
1990 establishments in Finland |
61637258 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voatz | Voatz | Voatz is a for-profit, private mobile Internet voting application. The stated mission of Voatz is to "make voting not only more accessible and secure, but also more transparent, auditable and accountable." The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Citizens in Utah, Colorado, West Virginia, and other spots around the country have used the mobile app Voatz to cast their ballots in statewide elections. 2020, ″marks the first time people have used the technology to vote in a presidential contest.″ The app has also been used by the city of Denver for its municipal elections in 2019, and West Virginia used it for its primary in 2018.
Voatz has participated in ″82 elections around the world and served 2 million voters so far, including in Canada, Venezuela and the U.S.″ In September 2021 Voatz was used in the Philippines when the Philippines’Commission on Elections (Comelec)ran mock trials on the blockchain-enabled voting platform. In a 2018 pilot project for West Virginia, using Voatz, American voters submitted ballots from 29 countries including Albania, Botswana, Egypt, Mexico and Japan.
Before 2020, Voatz received substantial criticism for not being transparent with their auditing process; although Voatz had claimed to be subjected to security audits by independent technology firms, it was not been forthcoming with the results. For example, when reporters have reached out to auditors they did not hear back, and Voatz has insisted that these same companies sign non-disclosure agreements prior to investigating the company.
In 2020, a report by MIT researchers identified a number of high-severity vulnerabilities in Voatz's architecture, which Voatz vehemently denied, calling the research "flawed.". A follow-on security assessment, paid for by Voatz itself, was released by the security auditing firm Trail of Bits, confirming the MIT researchers' results, and another 48 technical issues were reported (plus 31 threat model findings for a total of 79 findings), a third of which were rated 'high severity.' 8 of the 48 technical issues were addressed. Voatz has since claimed that it has made ″improvements after the MIT report came out, specifically around something called a side-channel attack, in which a hacker can potentially recover a user’s secret ballot.″
Voatz was created by Nimit Sawhney in 2014, and was developed as a side project at a SXSW hackathon. As of October 2019, the startup has conducted over 31 pilots and completed a $7 million Series A in June.
Technology
Voatz uses blockchain technology and biometrics in order to verify voter identities, forgoing the storage of sensitive personal information in a database. The blockchain infrastructure of Voatz includes 32 identically arranged verifying servers that are distributed across Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure. Each server runs an identical copy of Hyperledger, an open source blockchain software.
Once a user downloads the Voatz app, they verify their phone number, provide a photo ID, as well as a "selfie". Facial recognition and voter rolls are used to verify identity and confirm a match between the picture and ID submitted. After the user is offered a secure token (activated through the use of a fingerprint) applicable to eligible elections, the user's biometric information is removed from the Voatz system. After all votes are submitted to Voatz, votes are printed on a paper ballot and fed into a machine.
The Voatz mobile application offers an interface available to administrators of the election incorporating Voatz. Election officials are able to view ballots, add voters, and publish results if needed. Voatz does not allow voters to interact with the mobile application’s blockchain-specific functions. Thus, rather than voters using wallet addresses, tokens, or private keys, voters are able to designate a 6-digit code or use biometric verification as their private key.
Implementations
2018 West Virginia
From March to May 2018, West Virginia implemented a temporary mobile voting solution for a series of pilot studies that recorded votes for deployed members of the military. Core functionalities included, but were not limited to, the ability to spoil a ballot, post-election audits, and automatic "tabulatable" audits. In order to run the applications, Voatz implemented minimum software and hardware requirements for participants. iPhone users needed to own an iPhone 5s or later with iOS 10+. Android users required a functioning Android OS version 6+ with KNOX support.
2016 Massachusetts Democratic State Convention
In June 2016, Voatz was used to authenticate delegate badges at the 2016 Massachusetts Democratic State Convention. Over 2,000 Democratic leaders and elected officials from Massachusetts traveled to Lowell for the party’s state convention. Voatz created a QR code for each delegate on a list provided by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Before being able to vote, every delegate was required to verify their identity through the Voatz app's photo recognition. Voatz was used at the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention alongside a paper ballot. Veronica Martinez, Executive Director for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, reported that the party intends to use Voatz in the future. Photo comparison and identification were additional ballot-specific identity features tested. Once voters scanned their QR code and cast their vote — all while using the same device — voters could use their device to take a picture with them in it. Every time a voter used another station or device in order to vote, the voter would take another picture of themselves and compare it to the first picture they took of themselves.
2017 Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Election
At Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, Voatz was used to assist in the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate election. The Tufts Registrar created a list of students in order for Voatz to create QR codes for every student. The QR codes were sent to student emails on the day of the election. Students used their smartphone to scan their Tufts Student ID card in order to verify their identity.
The TCU Senate has continued to use Voatz in every election since 2017. After 2017, the TCU Senate created two options for student voting. The first option is to vote online. Tufts students may download the Voatz app, which can only be downloaded by signing up with an official Tufts email address. Tufts students can also check their email for a security key and vote on the Voatz Lite Web Portal. Alternatively, students can vote in person. On the day of elections, students can arrive to a designated campus center with the security key sent to their email. There, they can vote using Voatz tablets provided by Voatz representatives who are there to assist and answer questions.
2020 Utah U.S. Presidential Election
In October 2020, a Utah resident became the first person to cast a vote for president in a U.S. general election via a blockchain-based voting app on a personal cellphone, according to Fox News. GovTech reported that Tthe vote in question was submitted in Utah County with the Voatz app, which has been piloted in a number of states, including West Virginia, Colorado and Oregon. Utah was the first state to hold a live demonstration of how Voatz ballots can be audited...Utah County started utilizing Voatz in 2019 to give military voters a more secure voting option than email. The county eventually allowed voters with disabilities to use the app in a local election.
Philippines Trial Election
In the Philippines, Voatz was used in a trial election when participants were able to cast votes via a mobile app, web browser and assisted kiosks. According to Forkcast News, identities were verified twice, and voters also had to take a live selfie. ″Users marked ovals that mimic paper ballots, which the system then records as an individual, anonymous transaction on the blockchain.″ The report said, “The promise of remote voting is exciting nations around the world, but it’s especially alluring for the Philippines, which has a large diaspora known as OFWs — or overseas Filipino workers...For the upcoming 2022 polls, only about 1.6 million people overseas have registered, out of an estimated eligible population of between 7 to 10 million OFWs.”
According to CNN Philippines, of 669 volunteers, 348 voted on mobile, website, and assisted kiosks for two days for a 52.01% turnout. CNN quoted Comelec Director for Overseas Voting Bea Wee-Lozada, ″This looks promising because traditionally, we never go beyond 50% when it comes to voters who actually voted for overseas voting.″
Regarding security, the Comelec (Commission on Elections) is well aware of the MIT study, and echoed the vendor’s point that there’s no such thing as a perfect system. ″You know, when a technology is new, there will be vulnerabilities,″ James Jimenez, spokesperson for the Comelec, said.
The Forkast report also said, ″Being a distributed ledger, blockchain will also allow anyone to come in and audit the results post-election. And then of course, there’s the convenience factor. Voting in many countries hasn’t changed much since the invention of paper ballots, and the pandemic has underscored the need to modernize — and socially distance — the process.″
Business Model
Voatz makes revenue from operating elections that use its technology. In 2018, a $2.2 million investment by Overstock — an American internet retailer —was made in order to further Overstock’s vision of bringing Voatz to election season and to also rebrand Overstock as a financial technology company. Overstock’s blockchain subsidiary — Medici Ventures — invests in several sectors: Payments & Banking, Capital Markets, Identity, Property Management, Supply Chain, and Voting. Medici Ventures has invested in 19 blockchain firms including Voatz.
Security assessments
Voatz has received criticism from several security experts. Josh Benaloh, senior cryptographer at Microsoft Research, argues that Voatz's scheme is insecure and over complicated, stating that "blockchains just don't help". Ron Rivest, a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, supported Benaloh's conclusion regarding the privacy properties of mobile voting solutions in general, stating that "It could be that the program on your computer is secretly shipping your information off to a government agency and telling them how you voted."
In 2020, a security assessment was released by the security auditing firm Trail of Bits (co-founded by Alexander Sotirov). 48 technical issues were reported (plus 31 threat model findings for a total of 79 findings), a third of which were rated 'high severity.' 8 of the 48 technical issues were addressed. The report also confirmed security issues reported earlier by MIT researchers, despite Voatz's denial.
FBI Investigation
In 2018, it was reported that there had been an attempted intrusion into the West Virginia military voting system by an unknown source. In relation to the attack, the FBI is investigating students from the University of Michigan enrolled in EECS 498-009, an Electrical Engineering special topic course at the University of Michigan. The course description states its objective is to "provide a deep examination of the past, present, and future of elections, informed by perspectives from computer security, tech policy, human factors, and more." According to Alex Warner, West Virginia's Secretary of State, in a press conference on October 1, 2019, "the IP addresses from which the attempts were made have been turned over to the FBI for investigation. The investigation will determine if crimes were committed." A CNN report on October 4, 2019 reported that Mike Stuart, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, was informed that the IP addresses in the investigation matched the IP addresses for the University of Michigan.
It was revealed in October 2019 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had launched an investigation into the attempt to hack Voatz during the 2018 midterm elections. Computer science students at the University of Michigan may have been involved with the case. FBI investigators are speculating that the motive behind the attempted hack into the Voatz app may have been for a class assignment, rather than to alter votes.
References
Electronic voting
2016 establishments in Massachusetts
American companies established in 2016
Companies based in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Blockchains |
6162424 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20educational%20software | List of educational software | This is a list of educational software that is computer software whose primary purpose is teaching or self-learning.
Educational software by subject
Anatomy
3D Indiana
Bodyworks Voyager – Mission in Anatomy
Primal Pictures
Visible Human Project
Chemistry
Aqion - simulates water chemistry
Children's software
Bobo Explores Light
ClueFinders titles
Delta Drawing
Edmark
Fun School titles
GCompris - free software (GPL)
Gold Series
JumpStart titles
Kiwaka
KidPix
Lola Panda
Museum Madness
Ozzie series
Reader Rabbit titles
Tux Paint - free software (GPL)
Zoombinis titles
Computer science
JFLAP - Java Formal language and Automata Package
Cryptography
CrypTool - illustrates cryptographic and cryptanalytic concepts
Dictionaries and reference
Britannica
Encarta
Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite
Geography and Astronomy
Cartopedia: The Ultimate World Reference Atlas
Celestia
Google Earth - (proprietary license)
Gravit - a free (GPL) Newtonian gravity simulator
KGeography
KStars
NASA World Wind - free software (NASA open source)
Stellarium
Swamp Gas Visits the United States of America - a game that teaches geography to children
Where is Carmen Sandiego? game series
WorldWide Telescope - a freeware from Microsoft
Health
TeachAids
History
Back in Time (iPad)
Balance of Power
Lemonade Stand
Number Munchers
Odell Lake
Spellevator
Windfall: The Oil Crisis Game
Word Munchers
Literacy
Accelerated Reader
AutoTutor
Compu-Read
DISTAR
Managed learning environments
ATutor (GPL)
Blackboard Inc.
Chamilo
Claroline
eCollege
eFront (CPAL)
Fle3 (GPL)
GCompris (GPL)
Google Classroom
ILIAS (GPL)
Kannu
LON-CAPA - free software (GPL)
Moodle - free software (GPL)
OLAT - free software
Renaissance Place
Sakai Project - free software
WebAssign
Mathematics
Accelerated Math
Cantor (software)
Compu-Math: Fractions
DrGeo
Geogebra
The Geometer's Sketchpad
Maple
Matlab / GNU Octave
Mathematica
Matheass
Math Blaster
Microsoft Mathematics
RekenTest
MathFacts in a Flash
SAGE - free software (GPL)
TK Solver
Tux, of Math Command- free software (GPL)
Music
Comparison of music education software
EarMaster
Yousician
List of music software
MuseScore
Syntorial
Programming
BlueJ
Hackety Hack
Racket
RoboMind
Scratch
Swift Playgrounds
Science
Betty's Brain
Science Sleuths
Simulation
Simulation games
Caesar titles
Capitalism
Civilization
The Oregon Trail
Sid Meier's Colonization
SimCity
Zoo Tycoon
Spaced Repetition
Anki
Memrise
SuperMemo
Synap
Mnemosyne
Touch-Typing Instruction
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
Mario Teaches Typing
Smorball
Tux Typing - free software (GPL)
Visual Learning and Mind Mapping
ConceptDraw MINDMAP
Freemind - free software (GPL)
Perception
SpicyNodes
Notable brands and suppliers of educational software
Dorling Kindersley
Knowledge Adventure
The Learning Company
Promethean World
Renaissance Learning
Riverdeep
SMART Technologies
RM plc
Unplag
Historical brands and suppliers
Brøderbund (now part of The Learning Company)
Creative Wonders (now part of the Learning Company)
Davidson & Associates (merged with Knowledge Adventure)
Edu-Ware
MECC
References
Educational video games
Educational |
241547 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen%20Harper | Stephen Harper | Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. The longest-serving prime minister from a right-of-centre party since John A. Macdonald, Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, serving as the party's first leader from 2004 to 2015.
Harper studied economics, earning a bachelor's degree in 1985 and a master's degree in 1991. He was one of the founders of the Reform Party of Canada and was first elected in 1993 in Calgary West. He did not seek re-election in the 1997 federal election, instead joining and later leading the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative lobbyist group. In 2002, he succeeded Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance, the successor to the Reform Party, and returned to parliament as leader of the Official Opposition. In 2003, Harper negotiated the merger of the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the Conservative Party of Canada and was elected as the party's first leader in March 2004. In the 2004 federal election, the new party lost its first election to the Liberal Party led by Paul Martin. From 2002 to 2015 as party leader, leader of the Official Opposition, and then prime minister, Harper represented the riding of Calgary Southwest in Alberta. He represented Calgary Heritage from 2015 until 2016.
The 2006 federal election resulted in a minority government led by the Conservative Party with Harper becoming the 22nd prime minister of Canada. During his first term, Harper confronted the In and Out scandal, while major legislation passed under Harper's leadership included the Federal Accountability Act, the Québécois nation motion and the Veterans' Bill of Rights. After the 2008 federal election, in which the Conservative Party won a larger minority, Harper passed the Economic Action Plan in response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, prorogued Parliament to defeat a non-confidence motion by a potential coalition of opposition parties and ordered military intervention during the First Libyan Civil War. The 40th Canadian Parliament was eventually dissolved in March 2011, after another no-confidence vote that found his government to be in contempt of Parliament. In the federal election, the Conservatives won a majority government. During his third term, Harper withdrew Canada from the Kyoto Protocol, launched Operation Impact in opposition to ISIL, repealed the long-gun registry, passed the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015, launched Canada's Global Markets Action Plan and grappled with controversies surrounding the Canadian Senate expenses scandal and the Robocall scandal.
In the 2015 federal election, the Conservative Party lost power to the Liberal Party led by Justin Trudeau. Harper officially stepped down as party leader on October 19, 2015, and Rona Ambrose was subsequently chosen as interim leader on November 5, 2015. After 2015, Harper slowly began to step away from Canadian politics and took on a number of international business and leadership roles, founding a global consulting firm, appearing on US and British media, and being elected leader of the International Democrat Union.
Early life and education
Harper was born and raised in Leaside, a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, the first of three sons of Margaret (née Johnston) and Joseph Harris Harper, an accountant at Imperial Oil. The Harper family traces its ancestry back to Yorkshire, England, with Christopher Harper having emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1784, where he later served as justice of the peace in the area that is now New Brunswick.
Harper attended Northlea Public School and, later, John G. Althouse Middle School and Richview Collegiate Institute, both in Etobicoke, Toronto. He graduated from high school in 1978, and was a member of Richview Collegiate's team on Reach for the Top, a televised academic quiz show for high school students. Harper studied at the University of Toronto's Trinity College before moving to Alberta. In an attempt to establish independence from his parents, Harper dropped out of the University of Toronto and then moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where he found work in the mail room at Imperial Oil. Later, he advanced to work on the company's computer systems. He took up post-secondary studies again at the University of Calgary, where he completed a bachelor's degree in economics in 1985. He later returned there to earn a master's degree in economics, completed in 1991. Throughout his career, Harper has kept strong links to the University of Calgary. Trained as an economist, Harper was the first prime minister with an economics degree since Pierre Trudeau and the first prime minister without a law degree since Joe Clark.
Political beginnings
Harper became involved in politics as a member of his high school's Young Liberals club. He later changed his political allegiance because he disagreed with the National Energy Program (NEP) of Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government. He became executive assistant to Progressive Conservative (PC) Member of Parliament (MP) Jim Hawkes in 1985 but later became disillusioned with the party and the government of Brian Mulroney, citing the administration's economic policy. He left the PC Party that same year.
Harper was then recommended by the University of Calgary's economist Bob Mansell to Preston Manning, the founder and leader of the right-wing populist Reform Party of Canada. At that time Harper "didn't see himself as a politician", Mansell told CBC News in 2002, adding, "Politics was not his first love."
Manning invited him to participate in the party, and Harper gave a speech at Reform's 1987 founding convention in Winnipeg. He became the Reform Party's chief policy officer, and he played a major role in drafting the 1988 election platform, otherwise known as the Blue Book, which helped form the principles and policies of the party. Harper was influenced by his political mentor, Tom Flanagan, when writing the book. He is credited with creating Reform's campaign slogan, "The West wants in!"
Harper ran for the House of Commons in the 1988 federal election in Calgary West and losing by a wide margin to Hawkes, his former employer. After Reform candidate Deborah Grey was elected as the party's first MP in a 1989 by-election, Harper became Grey's executive assistant, serving as her chief adviser and speechwriter until 1993. He remained prominent in the Reform Party's national organization in his role as policy chief, encouraging the party to expand beyond its Western base and arguing that strictly regional parties were at risk of being taken over by radical elements. He delivered a speech at the Reform Party's 1991 national convention, in which he condemned extremist views.
Harper's relationship with Manning became strained in 1992, because of conflicting strategies over the Charlottetown Accord. Harper opposed the accord on principle for ideological reasons, while Manning was initially more open to compromise. Harper also criticized Manning's decision to hire Rick Anderson as an adviser, believing that Anderson was not sufficiently committed to the Reform Party's principles. He resigned as the policy chief in October 1992.
Harper stood for office again in the 1993 federal election, and defeated Jim Hawkes amid a significant Reform breakthrough in Western Canada. His campaign likely benefited from a $50,000 print and television campaign organized by the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) against Hawkes, although the NCC did not endorse Harper directly.
Reform MP (1993–1997)
Harper emerged a prominent member of the Reform Party caucus. He was active on constitutional issues during his first parliament, and played a prominent role in drafting the Reform Party's strategy for the 1995 Quebec referendum. A long-standing opponent of centralized federalism, he stood with Preston Manning in Montreal to introduce a twenty-point plan to "decentralize and modernize" Canada in the event of a "no" victory. Harper later argued that the "no" side's narrow plurality was a worst-case scenario, in that no-one had won a mandate for change.
Harper has expressed some socially conservative views on certain issues. In 1994, he opposed plans by federal Justice Minister Allan Rock to introduce spousal benefits for same-sex couples. Citing the recent failure of a similar initiative in Ontario, he was quoted as saying, "What I hope they learn is not to get into it. There are more important social and economic issues, not to mention the unity question." Harper also spoke against the possibility of the Canadian Human Rights Commission or the Supreme Court changing federal policy in these and other matters.
At the Reform Party's 1994 policy convention, Harper was part of a small minority of delegates who voted against restricting the definition of marriage to "the union of one man and one woman". He opposed both same-sex marriage and mandated benefits for same-sex couples, but argued that political parties should refrain from taking official positions on these and other "issues of conscience".
Harper was the only Reform MP to support the creation of the Canadian Firearms Registry at second reading in 1995, although he later voted against it at third reading stage. He said at the time that he initially voted for the registry because of a poll showing that most of his constituents supported it, and added that he changed his vote when a second poll showed the opposite result. It was reported in April 1995, that some Progressive Conservatives opposed to Jean Charest's leadership wanted to remove both Charest and Manning, and unite the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties under Harper's leadership.
Despite his prominent position in the party, Harper's relationship with the Reform Party leadership was frequently strained. In early 1994, he criticized a party decision to establish a personal expense account for Manning at a time when other Reform MPs had been asked to forego parliamentary perquisites. He was formally rebuked by the Reform executive council despite winning support from some MPs. His relationship with Manning grew increasingly fractious in the mid-1990s, and he pointedly declined to express any opinion on Manning's leadership during a 1996 interview. This friction was indicative of a fundamental divide between the two men: Harper was strongly committed to conservative principles and opposed Manning's inclinations toward populism, which Harper saw as leading to compromise on core ideological matters.
These tensions culminated in late 1996 when Harper announced that he would not be a candidate in the next federal election. He resigned his parliamentary seat on January 14, 1997, the same day that he was appointed as a vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), a conservative think-tank and advocacy group. He was promoted to NCC president later in the year.
In April 1997, Harper suggested that the Reform Party was drifting toward social conservatism and ignoring the principles of economic conservatism. The Liberal Party lost seats but managed to retain a narrow majority government in the 1997 federal election, while Reform made only modest gains.
Out of parliament
1997–2000
Soon after leaving Parliament, Harper and Tom Flanagan co-authored an opinion piece entitled "Our Benign Dictatorship", which argued that the Liberal Party only retained power through a dysfunctional political system and a divided opposition. Harper and Flanagan argued that national conservative governments between 1917 and 1993 were founded on temporary alliances between Western populists and Quebec nationalists, and were unable to govern because of their fundamental contradictions. The authors called for an alliance of Canada's conservative parties, and suggested that meaningful political change might require electoral reforms such as proportional representation. "Our Benign Dictatorship" also commended Conrad Black's purchase of the Southam newspaper chain, arguing that his stewardship would provide for a "pluralistic" editorial view to counter the "monolithically liberal and feminist" approach of the previous management.
Harper remained active in constitutional issues. He was a prominent opponent of the Calgary Declaration on national unity in late 1997, describing it as an "appeasement strategy" against Quebec nationalism. He called for federalist politicians to reject this strategy, and approach future constitutional talks from the position that "Quebec separatists are the problem and they need to be fixed". In late 1999, Harper called for the federal government to establish clear rules for any future Quebec referendum on sovereignty. Some have identified Harper's views as an influence on the Chrétien government's Clarity Act.
As president of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) from 1998 to 2002, Harper launched an ultimately unsuccessful legal battle against federal election laws restricting third-party advertising. He led the NCC in several campaigns against the Canadian Wheat Board, and supported Finance Minister Paul Martin's 2000 tax cuts as a positive first step toward tax reform.
In 1997, Harper delivered a controversial speech on Canadian identity to the Council for National Policy, a conservative American think tank. He made comments such as "Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it", "if you're like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians", and "the NDP [New Democratic Party] is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men." These statements were made public and criticized during the 2006 election. Harper argued that the speech was intended as humour, and not as serious analysis.
Harper considered campaigning for the Progressive Conservative Party leadership in 1998, after Jean Charest left federal politics. Among those encouraging his candidacy were senior aides to Ontario Premier Mike Harris, including Tony Clement and Tom Long. He eventually decided against running, arguing that it would "burn bridges to those Reformers with whom I worked for many years" and prevent an alliance of right-wing parties from taking shape. Harper was sceptical about the Reform Party's United Alternative initiative in 1999, arguing that it would serve to consolidate Manning's hold on the party leadership. He also expressed concern that the UA would dilute Reform's ideological focus.
2000–2001
When the United Alternative created the Canadian Alliance in 2000 as a successor party to Reform, Harper predicted that Stockwell Day would defeat Preston Manning for the new party's leadership. He expressed reservations about Day's abilities, however, and accused Day of "[making] adherence to his social views a litmus test to determine whether you're in the party or not". Harper endorsed Tom Long for the leadership, arguing that Long was best suited to take support from the Progressive Conservative Party. When Day placed first on the first ballot, Harper said that the Canadian Alliance was shifting "more towards being a party of the religious right".
After the death of Pierre Trudeau in 2000, Harper wrote an editorial criticizing Trudeau's policies as they affected Western Canada. He wrote that Trudeau "embraced the fashionable causes of his time, with variable enthusiasm and differing results", but "took a pass" on the issues that "truly defined his century". Harper subsequently accused Trudeau of promoting "unabashed socialism", and argued that Canadian governments between 1972 and 2002 had restricted economic growth through "state corporatism".
After the Canadian Alliance's poor showing in the 2000 election, Harper joined with other Western conservatives in co-authoring a document called the "Alberta Agenda". The letter called on Alberta to reform publicly funded health care, replace the Canada Pension Plan with a provincial plan and replace the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with a provincial police force. It became known as the "firewall letter", because it called on the provincial government to "build firewalls around Alberta" to stop the federal government from redistributing its wealth to less affluent regions. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein agreed with some of the letter's recommendations, but distanced himself from the "firewall" comments.
Harper also wrote an editorial in late 2000 arguing that Alberta and the rest of Canada were "embark[ing] on divergent and potentially hostile paths to defining their country". He said that Alberta had chosen the "best of Canada's heritage—a combination of American enterprise and individualism with the British traditions of order and co-operation" while Canada "appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country ... led by a second-world strongman appropriately suited for the task". He also called for a "stronger and much more autonomous Alberta", while rejecting calls for separatism. In the 2001 Alberta provincial election, Harper led the NCC in a "Vote Anything but Liberal" campaign. Some articles from this period described him as a possible successor to Klein.
Harper and the NCC endorsed a private school tax credit proposed by Ontario's Progressive Conservative government in 2001, arguing that it would "save about $7,000 for each student who does not attend a union-run public school". Education Minister Janet Ecker criticized this, saying that her government's intent was not to save money at the expense of public education.
Day's leadership of the Canadian Alliance became increasingly troubled throughout the summer of 2001, as several party MPs called for his resignation. In June, the National Post newspaper reported that former Reform MP Ian McClelland was organizing a possible leadership challenge on Harper's behalf. Harper announced his resignation from the NCC presidency in August 2001, to prepare a campaign.
Canadian Alliance leadership, 2002–2003
Stockwell Day called a new Canadian Alliance leadership race for 2002, and soon declared himself a candidate. Harper emerged as Day's main rival, and declared his own candidacy on December 3, 2001. He eventually won the support of at least 28 Alliance MPs, including Scott Reid, James Rajotte and Keith Martin. During the campaign, Harper reprised his earlier warnings against an alliance with Quebec nationalists, and called for his party to become the federalist option in Quebec. He argued that "the French language is not imperilled in Quebec", and opposed "special status" for the province in the Canadian constitution accordingly. He also endorsed greater provincial autonomy on Medicare, and said that he would not co-operate with the Progressive Conservatives as long as they were led by Joe Clark. On social issues, Harper argued for "parental rights" to use corporal punishment against their children and supported raising the age of sexual consent. He described his potential support base as "similar to what George Bush tapped".
The tone of the leadership contest turned hostile in February 2002. Harper described Day's governance of the party as "amateurish", while his campaign team argued that Day was attempting to win re-election by building a narrow support base among different groups in the religious right. The Day campaign accused Harper of "attacking ethnic and religious minorities". In early March, the two candidates had an especially fractious debate on CBC Newsworld. The leadership vote was held on March 20, 2002. Harper was elected on the first ballot with 55% support, against 37% for Day. Two other candidates split the remainder.
After winning the party leadership, Harper announced his intention to run for parliament in a by-election in Calgary Southwest, recently vacated by Preston Manning. Ezra Levant had been chosen as the riding's Alliance candidate and declared that he would not stand aside for Harper; he later reconsidered. The Liberals did not field a candidate, following a parliamentary tradition of allowing opposition leaders to enter the House of Commons unopposed. The Progressive Conservative candidate, Jim Prentice, also chose to withdraw. Harper was elected without difficulty over New Democrat Bill Phipps, a former United Church of Canada moderator. Harper told a reporter during the campaign that he "despise[d]" Phipps, and declined to debate him.
Harper officially became the leader of the Official Opposition in May 2002. Later in the same month, he said that the Atlantic Provinces were trapped in "a culture of defeat" which had to be overcome, the result of policies designed by Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments. Many Atlantic politicians condemned the remark as patronizing and insensitive. The Legislature of Nova Scotia unanimously approved a motion condemning Harper's comments, which were also criticized by New Brunswick premier, Bernard Lord, federal Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark and others. Harper refused to apologize, and said that much of Canada was trapped by the same "can't-do" attitude.
In March 2003, their speeches in favour gaining no traction in Parliament, Harper and Stockwell Day co-wrote a letter to The Wall Street Journal in which they condemned the Canadian government's unwillingness to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Conservative Party leadership, 2004–2006
On January 12, 2004, Harper announced his resignation as the leader of the Official Opposition in order to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. Harper was elected the first leader of the Conservative Party, with a first ballot majority against Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement on March 20, 2004. Harper's victory included strong showings outside of Western Canada.
2004 federal election
Harper led the Conservatives into the 2004 federal election. Initially, new Prime Minister Paul Martin held a large lead in polls, but this eroded because of infighting, Adscam (a scandal that came as a result of a Government of Canada "sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec and involving the Liberal Party of Canada) and other scandals surrounding his government. The Liberals attempted to counter this with an early election call, as this would give the Conservatives less time to consolidate their merger.
This, along with an unpopular provincial budget by Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty in Ontario, moved the Conservatives into a lead for a time. However, comments by Conservative MPs, leaked press releases accusing the then prime minister of supporting child pornography, as well as attack ads suggesting that the Conservatives had a secret agenda, caused Harper's party to lose some momentum.
The Liberals were re-elected to power with a minority government, with the Conservatives coming in second place. The Conservatives managed to make inroads into the Liberals' Ontario stronghold, primarily in the province's socially conservative central region. However, they were shut out of Quebec, marking the first time that a centre-right party did not win any seats in that province. Harper, after some personal deliberation, decided to stay on as the party leader.
Agreement with the BQ and the NDP
Two months after the federal election, Stephen Harper privately met Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton in a Montreal hotel. On September 9, 2004, the three signed a letter addressed to the governor general, Adrienne Clarkson, stating,
On the same day the letter was written, the three party leaders held a joint press conference at which they expressed their intent to co-operate on changing parliamentary rules, and to request that the governor general consult with them before deciding to call an election. At the news conference, Harper said "It is the Parliament that's supposed to run the country, not just the largest party and the single leader of that party. That's a criticism I've had and that we've had and that most Canadians have had for a long, long time now so this is an opportunity to start to change that." However, at the time, Harper and the two other opposition leaders denied trying to form a coalition government. Harper said, "This is not a coalition, but this is a co-operative effort."
One month later, on October 4, Mike Duffy, who was later appointed as a Conservative senator by Harper, said "It is possible that you could change prime minister without having an election", and that some Conservatives wanted Harper to temporarily become prime minister without holding an election. The next day Layton walked out on talks with Harper and Duceppe, accusing them of trying to replace Paul Martin with Harper as prime minister. Both Bloc and Conservative officials denied Layton's accusations.
On March 26, 2011, Duceppe stated that Harper had tried to form a coalition government with the Bloc and NDP in response to Harper's allegations that the Liberals may form a coalition with the Bloc and the NDP.
Leader of the Opposition
The Conservative Party's first policy convention was held from March 17 to 19, 2005, in Montreal. Harper had been rumoured to be shifting his ideology closer to that of a Blue Tory, and many thought he'd wanted to move the party's policies closer to the centre. Any opposition to abortion or bilingualism was dropped from the Conservative platform. Harper received an 84% endorsement from delegates in the leadership review.
Despite the party's move to the centre, the party began a concerted drive against same-sex marriage. Harper was criticized by a group of law professors for arguing that the government could override the provincial court rulings on same-sex marriage without using the "notwithstanding clause", a provision of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He also argued, in general, for lower taxes, an elected Senate, a tougher stance on crime, and closer relations with the United States.
Following the April 2005 release of Jean Brault's damaging testimony at the Gomery Commission, implicating the Liberals in the scandal, opinion polls placed the Conservatives ahead of Liberals. The Conservatives had earlier abstained from the vote on the 2005 budget to avoid forcing an election. With the collapse in Liberal support and a controversial NDP amendment to the budget, the party exerted significant pressure on Harper to bring down the government. In May, Harper announced that Martin's Liberals had lost the "moral authority to govern". Shortly thereafter, the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois united to defeat the government on a vote that some considered to be either a confidence motion or else a motion requiring an immediate test of the confidence of the House. The Martin government did not accept this interpretation and argued that vote had been on a procedural motion, although they also indicated that they would bring forward their revised budget for a confidence vote the following week. Ultimately, the effort to bring down the Martin government failed following the decision of Conservative MP Belinda Stronach to cross the floor to the Liberal Party. The vote on the NDP amendment to the budget tied, and with the speaker of the House voting to continue the debate, the Liberals stayed in power. At the time, some considered the matter to be a constitutional crisis.
Harper was also criticized for supporting his caucus colleague MP Gurmant Grewal. Grewal had produced tapes of conversations with Tim Murphy, Paul Martin's chief of staff, in which Grewal claimed he had been offered a cabinet position in exchange for his defection.
The Liberals' support dropped sharply after the first report from the Gomery Commission was issued, but rebounded soon after. Later that month, Harper introduced a motion of no confidence on the Martin government, telling the House of Commons "that this government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons and needs to be removed". As the Liberals had lost NDP support in the house by refusing to accept an NDP plan to prevent health care privatization, the no-confidence motion was passed by a vote of 171–133. It was the first time that a Canadian government had been toppled by a straight motion of no confidence proposed by the opposition. As a result, Parliament was dissolved and a general election was scheduled for January 23, 2006.
On February 27, 2008, allegations surfaced that two Conservative Party officials offered terminally ill, independent MP Chuck Cadman a million-dollar life insurance policy in exchange for his vote to bring down the Liberal government in a May 2005, budget vote. If the story had been proved true, the actions may have been grounds for charges as a criminal offence as under the Criminal Code, it is illegal to bribe an MP.
When asked by Vancouver journalist Tom Zytaruk about the alleged life insurance offer then-opposition leader Stephen Harper states on an audio tape "I don't know the details. I know there were discussions" and goes on to say "The offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election". Harper also stated that he had told the Conservative Party representatives that they were unlikely to succeed. "I told them they were wasting their time. I said Chuck had made up his mind." In February 2008, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigated the allegations that Section 119's provisions on bribery and corruption in the Criminal Code had been violated. The RCMP concluded their investigation stating that there was no evidence for pressing charges.
Harper denied any wrongdoing and subsequently filed a civil libel suit against the Liberal Party. Because libel laws do not apply to statements made in Parliament, the basis of the lawsuit was that statements made by Liberal Party members outside the House of Commons and in articles which appeared on the Liberal Party web site made accusations that Harper had committed a criminal act.
The audio expert hired by Harper to prove that the tape containing the evidence was doctored reported that the latter part of the tape was recorded over, but the tape was unaltered where Harper's voice said "I don't know the details, I know that, um, there were discussions, um, but this is not for publication?" and goes on to say he "didn't know the details" when asked if he knew anything about the alleged offer to Cadman.
2006 federal election
The Conservatives began the campaign period with a policy-per-day strategy, contrary to the Liberal plan of holding off major announcements until after the Christmas holidays, so Harper dominated media coverage for the first weeks of the election. Though his party showed only modest movement in the polls, Harper's personal numbers, which had always significantly trailed those of his party, began to rise. In response, the Liberals launched negative ads targeting Harper, similar to their attacks in the 2004 election. However, their tactics were not sufficient to erode the Conservative's advantage, although they did manage to close what had been a ten-point advantage in public opinion. As Harper's personal numbers rose, polls found he was now considered not only more trustworthy, but a better choice for prime minister than Martin.
Immediately prior to the Christmas break, in a faxed letter to NDP candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis, RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli announced the RCMP had opened a criminal investigation into her complaint that it appeared Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale's office had leaked information leading to insider trading before making an important announcement on the taxation of income trusts. On December 27, 2005, the RCMP confirmed that information in a press release. At the conclusion of the investigation, Serge Nadeau, a top civil servant in the Department of Finance, was charged with criminal breach of trust. No charges were laid against Goodale.
The election gave Harper's Conservatives the largest number of seats in the House, although not enough for a majority government, and shortly after midnight on January 24, Martin conceded defeat. Later that day, Martin informed Governor General Michaëlle Jean that he would resign as prime minister, and at 6:45 p.m. Jean asked Harper to form a government. Harper was sworn in as Canada's 22nd prime minister on February 6, 2006.
In his first address to Parliament as Prime Minister, Harper opened by paying tribute to the queen of Canada, Elizabeth II, and her "lifelong dedication to duty and self-sacrifice". He also said before the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce that Canada and the United Kingdom were joined by "the golden circle of the Crown, which links us all together with the majestic past that takes us back to the Tudors, the Plantagenets, the Magna Carta, habeas corpus, petition of rights, and English common law". Journalist Graham Fraser said in the Toronto Star that Harper's speech was "one of the most monarchist speeches a Canadian prime minister has given since John Diefenbaker". An analysis by Michael D. Behiels suggested that a political realignment might be underway, based on the continuance of Harper's government.
After the election, the Conservative party were charged with improper election spending, in a case that became known as the In and Out scandal. It dragged on for years, but in 2012 they took a plea deal, admitting both improper spending and falsifying records to hide it.
Prime Minister of Canada (2006–2015)
In July 2019, a group of independent academics published an assessment of past prime ministers of Canada based on the number of campaign pledges and promises fulfilled. According to the study, the Harper government fulfilled 85 per cent of its pledges (including partially-completed pledges). When factoring only completed, realized pledges, the Harper's government, in their last year, kept 77 per cent of promises. The study found that the governments led by Harper, in addition to the government led by his successor, Justin Trudeau, had the highest rates of follow-through for campaign promises of any Canadian government in the last 35 years.
2008 federal election
On October 14, 2008, after a 5-week-long campaign, the Conservatives increased their seat count in Parliament to 143, up from 127 at the dissolution of the previous Parliament; however, the actual popular vote among Canadians dropped slightly by 167,494 votes. As a result of the lowest voter turnout in Canadian electoral history, this represented only 22% of eligible Canadian voters, the lowest level of support of any winning party in Canadian history. Meanwhile, the number of opposition Liberal MPs fell from 95 to 77 seats. 155 MPs are required to form a majority government in Canada's 308-seat parliament, relegating Harper to minority government once again.
2008 parliamentary dispute and prorogation
On December 4, 2008, Harper asked Governor General Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament to avoid a vote of confidence scheduled for the following Monday, becoming the first Canadian prime minister to do so. The request was granted by Jean, and the prorogation lasted until January 26, 2009. The opposition coalition dissolved shortly after, with the Conservatives winning a Liberal supported confidence vote on January 29, 2009.
2010 prorogation
On December 30, 2009, Harper announced that he would request the governor general to prorogue Parliament again, effective immediately on December 30, 2009, during the 2010 Winter Olympics and lasting until March 3, 2010. Harper stated that this was necessary for Canada's economic plan. Jean granted the request. In an interview with CBC News, Prince Edward Island Liberal MP Wayne Easter accused the prime minister of "shutting democracy down". Tom Flanagan, Harper's University of Calgary mentor and former chief of staff, also questioned Harper's reasoning for prorogation, stating that "I think the government's talking points haven't been entirely credible" and that the government's explanation of proroguing was "skirting the real issue—which is the harm the opposition parties are trying to do to the Canadian Forces" regarding the Canadian Afghan detainee issue. Small demonstrations took place on January 23 in 64 Canadian cities and towns and five cities in other countries. A Facebook protest group attracted over 20,000 members.
A poll released by Angus Reid on January 7, found that 53 per cent of respondents were opposed to the prorogation, while 19 per cent supported it. 38 per cent believed Harper used the prorogation to curtail the Afghan detainee inquiry, while 23 per cent agreed with Harper's explanation that the prorogation was necessary economically.
2010 Senate appointments
Harper, on January 29, 2010, advised the governor general to appoint new Conservative senators to fill five vacancies in the Senate, one each for Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick, and two for Ontario. The new senators were Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, of Quebec; Bob Runciman, of Ontario; Vim Kochhar, of Ontario; Elizabeth Marshall of Newfoundland and Labrador; and Rose-May Poirier, of New Brunswick. This changed the party standings in the Senate, which had previously been dominated by Liberals, to 51 Conservatives, 49 Liberals, and five others.
2011 vote of no confidence
Harper's Cabinet was defeated in a no-confidence vote on March 25, 2011, after being found in contempt of Parliament. Harper thus, in accordance with constitutional convention, advised the governor general to call a general election. This was the first occurrence in Commonwealth history of a government in the Westminster parliamentary tradition losing the confidence of the lower house on the grounds of contempt of parliament. The no-confidence motion was carried with a vote of 156 in favour of the motion and 145 against.
2011 election
On May 2, 2011, after a five-week campaign, Harper led the Conservatives to their third consecutive election victory—the first time a centre-right party has accomplished this in half a century. The Conservatives increased their standing in parliament to 166, up from 143 at the dissolution of the previous parliament. This resulted in the first centre-right majority government since the Progressive Conservatives had won their last majority in 1988. The Conservatives also received a greater number of total votes than in 2008. Notably, the Conservatives had a significant breakthrough in southern Ontario, a region where neither they nor the Reform/Alliance side of the merger had done well in the previous two decades. They managed to win several seats in Toronto itself; no centre-right party had won seats in the former Metro Toronto since 1988.
The election ended five years of minority governments, made the New Democratic Party the Official Opposition for the first time, relegated the Liberals to third place for the first time, brought Elizabeth May as Canada's first Green Party Member of Parliament, and reduced the Bloc Québécois from 47 to 4 seats.
After the election, the Conservatives were accused of cheating in the Robocall scandal, mainly suppressing votes by directing voters to bogus polling stations. There were complaints in 247 of Canada's 308 ridings, but only one person was charged; Conservative staffer Michael Sona was convicted and jailed.
2015 election
Under the Canada Elections Act, a general election had to take place no later than October 19, 2015. On August 2, at Harper's request, Governor General David Johnson dropped the writs of election for October 19. In that election, Harper's Conservative Party was defeated by Justin Trudeau's Liberals, and became the Official Opposition, dropping to only 99 seats out of 338. This was mainly because of a collapse of Conservative support in southern Ontario, a region that swung heavily to them in 2011. They lost all of their seats in Toronto, and won only three seats in the Greater Toronto Area. They were also shut out of Atlantic Canada—the first time in decades that there will be no centre-right MPs from that region. Harper was re-elected in Calgary Heritage, essentially a reconfigured version of his former riding.
Hours after conceding defeat on election night, Harper resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and returned to the backbench. Former Cabinet minister Rona Ambrose was elected interim leader by the Conservative caucus, pending a formal leadership election. Harper resigned as Prime Minister during a meeting with Governor General David Johnston, who accepted the resignation, after which Johnston invited Trudeau to form a government on November 4, 2015. After Andrew Scheer resigned as Conservative leader in 2019, the National Post criticized Harper, by stating that he "lost in 2015 in a way that left his party struggling to make any sense at all, including on deficits."
Domestic and economic policy
Constitutional issues
After sidestepping the political landmine for most of the first year of his time as prime minister, much as all the post-Charlottetown Accord prime ministers had done, Harper's hand was forced to reopen the Quebec sovereignty debate after the opposition Bloc Québécois were to introduce a motion in the House that called for recognition of Quebec as a "nation". On November 22, 2006, Harper introduced his own motion to recognize that "the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada." Five days later, Harper's motion passed, with a margin of 266–16; all federalist parties, and the Bloc Québécois, supported it.
In 2004, Harper said "the Upper House remains a dumping ground for the favoured cronies of the prime minister". Between 2006 and 2008, by which time Harper was prime minister, he did not put any names to the governor general for appointment to the Senate, resulting in 16 Senate vacancies by the October 2008 election. The one exception was Michael Fortier. When Harper took office, he advised the governor general to appoint Michael Fortier to both the Senate and the Cabinet, arguing the government needed representation from the city of Montreal. Although there is a precedent for this action in Canadian history, the appointment led to criticism from opponents who claimed Harper was reneging on his push for an elected Senate. In 2008, Fortier gave up his Senate seat and sought election as an MP, but was defeated by a large margin by the incumbent Bloc Québécois MP.
After the October 2008, election, Harper again named Senate reform as a priority. By December, he recommended the appointment of 18 senators and, in 2009, provided an additional nine people for appointment as senators. Many of those appointed had close ties with the Conservative Party, including the campaign manager of the Conservative Party, Doug Finley. Critics accused Harper of hypocrisy (the Liberals coined the term "Harpocrisy"). Conservative senator Bert Brown defended Harper's appointments and said "the only way [the Senate]'s ever been filled is by having people that are loyal to the prime minister who's appointing them".
Economic management
During Harper's tenure, Canada had budgetary surpluses in 2006 and 2007 of $13.8 and 9.6 billion respectively. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Canada ran deficits from 2008–2013. The deficit was $55.6 billion in 2009 and was gradually lowered to $5.2 billion in 2013. In 2014, the federal budget was balanced with a surplus of $1.9 billion. For the first 11 months of the 2015–2016 period, the federal government was on track for a $7.5 billion surplus. For 2015–2016, the federal government projected a $1.4-billion surplus. Following the 2015 federal election and a change in government, the 2015 fiscal year ended in a $1 billion deficit instead. In 2010, Canada had the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7 economies. The Economist magazine stated that Canada had come out the recession stronger than any other rich country in the G7. In 2013, Canada came out with Global Markets Action Plan to generate employment opportunities for Canadians.
2011 Census
Ahead of the Canada 2011 Census, the government announced that the long-form questionnaire (which collects detailed demographic information) will no longer be mandatory. According to Minister of Industry Tony Clement, the change was made because of privacy-related complaints and after consulting with Statistics Canada. However, the federal privacy commissioner reported only receiving three complaints between 1995 and 2010, according to a report in the Toronto Sun.
Munir Sheikh, the chief statistician of Canada—appointed on Harper's advice—resigned on July 21, 2010, in protest of the government's change in policy. Ivan Fellegi, a former chief statistician, criticized the government's decision, saying that those who are most vulnerable (such as the poor, new immigrants, and aboriginals) are least likely to respond to a voluntary form, which weakens information about their demographic.
The move was opposed by some governmental and non-governmental organizations. Federation of Canadian Municipalities; the Toronto government; Canadian Jewish Congress; Evangelical Fellowship of Canada; Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; Canadian Medical Association; Statistical Society of Canada; the American Statistical Association; and Registered Nurses Association of Ontario all opposed the change. However, the Fraser Institute supported the change. The provincial governments of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba, also opposed the change.
Veterans
Under Harper, the annual budget of Veterans Affairs Canada increased from $2.85 billion in 2005–2006 to $3.55 billion in 2014–2015, while the quantity of veterans served has declined from 219,152 in 2008–2009 to 199,154 in 2015. Nine Veterans Affairs offices were closed between 2012 and 2015, and 900 positions were phased out from the department since 2009. Former-minister of veterans affairs Erin O'Toole stated that the closures were made to modernize the department, by moving services online and to Service Canada locations. In 2006, Harper implemented the New Veterans Charter passed with all party support by the previous Liberal government. This charter gave veterans the option to select a lump-sum payment, an annual installment over the number of years of a Veteran's choosing, or a combination of these two payment options. Under Harper, the Canadian government spent $700,000 fighting a class-action lawsuit brought by a group of wounded Afghan veterans who argued that the new charter was discriminatory.
Foreign policy
During his term, Harper dealt with many foreign policy issues relating to the United States, the War on Terror, the Arab–Israeli conflict, free trade, China, and Africa.
He reduced defence spending to 1 per cent of Canadian GDP.
In 2009, Harper visited China. During the visit Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao publicly scolded Harper for not visiting earlier, pointing out that "this is the first meeting between the Chinese premier and a Canadian prime minister in almost five years"; Harper in response said that, "it's almost been five years since we had yourself or President Hu in our country." In 2008, former-prime minister Jean Chrétien had criticized Harper for missing opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; in response, Dimitri Soudas, a spokesperson for Harper, called the remarks hypocritical, pointing out that Chrétien "attended one of six Olympic opening ceremonies during his 13 years as prime minister".
On September 11, 2007, Harper visited Australia and addressed its Parliament.
On January 20, 2014, Harper addressed the Israeli Knesset in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.
During mid-2015, Harper repeatedly voiced his opinion that Russia should be excluded from association with the G7 group of nations because of Russia's support for Russian-speaking Ukrainian dissidents. On June 8, Harper said,"Mr. Putin ... has no place at the [G7] table, and I don't believe there's any leader who would defend Mr. Putin having a place."
Michael Ignatieff criticized Harper for cutting foreign aid to Africa by $700 million, falling short of the UN Millennium Development Goals, and cutting eight African countries from the list of priority aid recipients.
Afghanistan
On March 11 and 12, 2006, Harper made a surprise trip to Afghanistan, where Canadian Forces personnel had been deployed as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force since late 2001, to visit troops in theatre as a show of support for their efforts, and as a demonstration of the government's commitment to reconstruction and stability in the region. Harper's choice of a first foreign visit was closely guarded from the press until his arrival in Afghanistan (citing security concerns), and is seen as marking a significant change in relationship between the government and the military. Harper returned to Afghanistan on May 22, 2007, in a surprise two-day visit which included visiting Canadian troops at the forward operating base at Ma'Sum Ghar, located south of Kandahar, making Harper the first prime minister to have visited the front lines of a combat operation.
Israel
Harper has shown admiration for Israel since the early 1990s. Friends and colleagues describe his views as being the product of thinking and reading deeply about the Middle East. Toronto rabbi Philip Scheim, who accompanied Harper to Israel in 2014 said, "I sense that [Harper] sees Israel as a manifestation of justice and a righting of historical wrongs, especially in light of the Holocaust."
At the outset of the 2006 Israel–Lebanon conflict, Harper defended Israel's "right to defend itself" and described its military campaign in Lebanon as a "measured" response, arguing that Hezbollah's release of kidnapped Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers would be the key to ending the conflict. Speaking of the situation in both Lebanon and Gaza on July 18, Harper said he wanted "not just a ceasefire, but a resolution" but such a thing would not happen until Hezbollah and Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist. Harper blamed Hezbollah for all the civilian deaths. He asserted that Hezbollah's objective is to destroy Israel through violence.
The media noted that Harper did not allow reporters opportunities to ask him questions on his position. Some Canadians, including many Arab and Lebanese Canadians, criticized Harper's description of Israel's response.
In December 2008, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations recognized Harper's support for Israel with its inaugural International Leadership Award, pointing out Harper's decision to boycott the Durban II anti-racism conference, and his government's "support for Israel and [its] efforts at the U.N. against incitement and... the delegitimization of Israel".
In March 2009, Harper spoke at a Parliament Hill ceremony organized by Chabad-Lubavitch to honour the Jewish victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which included an attack on the Nariman House. He expressed condolences over the murder at Chabad's Mumbai centre of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka. Harper described the killings as "affronts to the values that unite all civilized people". Harper added that the quick instalment of a new rabbi at the Chabad centre in Mumbai as a signal that the Jewish people will "never bow to violence and hatred".
In 2010, Canada lost a bid for a seat on the UN Security Council. While initially blaming the loss on his rival Ignatieff, Harper later said that it was due to his pro-Israeli stance. Harper then said that he would take a pro-Israeli stance, no matter what the political cost to Canada. Ignatieff criticized Harper's stance as a "mistake", saying Canada would be better able to defend Israel through the Security Council than from the sidelines and pointed out that it is the Security Council that will determine if sanctions are imposed on Iran. Ignatieff also accused Harper of steering the discussion away from implementing the two-state solution, and instead of rendering all discussion into a competition "about who is Israel's best friend".
Harper backed Israel's 2014 war in Gaza and condemned Hamas. Harper said, "It is evident that Hamas is deliberately using human shields to further terror in the region."
Free trade with EFTA
On June 7, 2007, the Conservative government announced it had finalized free trade negotiations with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Under this agreement, Canada increased its trade ties with Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In 2006, the value of trade between these partners was $10.7 billion. Canada had originally begun negotiations with the EFTA on October 9, 1998, but talks broke down because of a disagreement over subsidies to shipyards in Atlantic Canada.
United States
Shortly after being congratulated by George W. Bush for his victory, Harper rebuked US Ambassador David Wilkins for criticizing the Conservatives' plans to assert Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean waters with armed forces. Harper's first meeting as prime minister with the US president occurred at the end of March 2006.
The government received American news coverage during the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential primaries after the details of a conversation between Barack Obama's economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, and Canadian diplomat Georges Rioux were revealed. Reportedly Goolsbee was reassuring the Canadians that Obama's comments on potentially renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were more political rhetoric than actual policy. The accuracy of these reports has been debated by both the Obama campaign and the Canadian government. The news came at a key time nearing the Ohio and Texas primaries, where perceptions among Democratic voters was (and is) that the benefits of the NAFTA agreement are dubious. Thus the appearance that Obama was not being completely forthright was attacked by his opponent Hillary Clinton.
ABC News reported that Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie was responsible for the details reaching the hands of the media. Harper has denied that Brodie was responsible for the leak, and launched an investigation to find the source. The Opposition, as well as Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, criticized the government on the issue, stating they were trying to help the Republicans by helping Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination instead of Obama. They also alleged the leak would hurt relations with the United States if Obama ever were to become President. Obama was elected president in November. In February, Obama made his first foreign visit as the US president to Ottawa, in which he affirmed support for free trade with Canada, as well as complimenting Canada on its involvement in Afghanistan.
Environmental policy
Since Harper's government took office in 2006, Canadian greenhouse gas emissions fell from 749 to 726 Mt of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eq). From 1993 until 2006, during the previous Liberal government greenhouse gas emissions increased from 600 to 749 Mt of CO2 eq. The reduction corresponded Canada's decreased economic output during the Great Recession and emissions began increasing slightly in 2010, when the economy began recovering. Other significant factors in Canada's decreased emissions during Harper's tenure are initiatives such as the carbon tax in British Columbia, the cap and trade system in Quebec, Ontario discontinuing use of coal-fired power plants, and the Clean Air Regulatory Agenda which regulates emissions for automobiles and light trucks. In 2006, a Clean Air and Climate Change Act was proposed to address air pollution as well as greenhouse gas emissions; it never became law. In 2006, the Clean Air Regulatory Agenda (CARA) was established to "support Government of Canada efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions in order to improve the environment and health of Canadians". In December 2011, the Harper government announced that Canada would formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Environment Minister Peter Kent stated, "It's now clear that Kyoto is not the path forward for a global solution to climate change." In December 2012, Canada became the first signatory to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.
Renewable energy
Other federal initiatives include the 2011 loan guarantee towards the Lower Churchill Project in Labrador, which is scheduled for completion in 2017. The Lower Churchill's two hydroelectric installations at Gull Island and Muskrat Falls will have a combined capacity of over 3,074 MW and have the ability to provide 16.7 TW·h of electricity per year, which is enough to "reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 3.2 million vehicles off the road each year".
Public transit
In 2006, Harper introduced a Public Transit Tax Credit, where individuals could claim 15 per cent of the cost of a transit pass each year. From 2006 to 2013, the Harper government invested over $5 billion towards public transit projects in Canada. In 2006, the federal government provided $697 million towards the Toronto York–Spadina Subway Extension. In September 2013, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a federal contribution of $660 million towards the Scarborough Subway Extension.
Transparency
Starting in 2006, the Harper government implemented policies that had the effect of reducing transparency. During this government, scientists employed by the government were not able to speak with the media and inform the public of their findings without government permission, the government made significant cuts to research and other forms of data collection, and significant destruction and inaccessibility of government-held data and documents occurred.
During the Harper government, it was not possible for government-employed scientists to openly speak about the government policy that prohibited communication with the media. However, following the election of a new government in 2015, several scientists who were or had been employed by the government came forward to confirm the allegations made by anonymous sources during the Harper years.
The government made drastic cuts to scientific research and data collection. Over 2,000 scientists were dismissed and funding was cut from world renowned research facilities. Cuts were also made to many essential programs, some so deep that they had to shut down entirely, including the monitoring of smoke stack emissions, food inspections, oil spills, water quality, and climate change. During this time, the long form census was also discontinued as a mandatory part of the census. This was ostensibly due to privacy concerns, however, the number of complaints about privacy proved to be minimal.
The government closed a number of government libraries without consultation on the closings or the process involved. The manner in which it was done received significant criticism because it left the remaining information in disarray, inaccessible for research.
Supreme Court nominations
Harper chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by the governor general:
Marshall Rothstein (March 1, 2006 – August 31, 2015)
Thomas Cromwell (September 5, 2008 – September 1, 2016)
Andromache Karakatsanis (October 21, 2011–present)
Michael J. Moldaver (October 21, 2011–present)
Richard Wagner (October 5, 2012–present)
Clément Gascon (June 9, 2014 – September 15, 2019)
Russell Brown (August 31, 2015–present)
Marshall Rothstein
In keeping with Harper's election promise to change the appointment process, Rothstein's appointment involved a review by a parliamentary committee, following his nomination by the prime minister. Rothstein had already been short-listed, with two other candidates, by a committee convened by Paul Martin's previous Liberal government, and he was Harper's choice. Harper then had Rothstein appear before an ad hoc non-partisan committee of 12 members of Parliament. This committee was not empowered to block the appointment, though, as had been called for by some members of Harper's Conservative Party.
Thomas Cromwell
On September 5, 2008, Harper nominated Thomas Cromwell of Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the departure of Michel Bastarache. By and large Cromwell's nomination was well received, with many lauding the selection; however, dissent has been noted surrounding the nomination. First, Harper bypassed Parliament's Supreme Court selection panel, which was supposed to produce a list of three candidates for him to choose from. Second, Newfoundland and Labrador Justice Minister Jerome Kennedy criticized the appointment, citing the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador's belief that constitutional convention stipulates that a Newfoundlander should have been named to the court in the rotation of Atlantic Canadian Supreme Court representation.
Marc Nadon
On October 3, 2013, Harper announced the nomination of supernumerary Federal Court of Appeals judge, Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Morris Fish. The appointment was challenged by both Ontario lawyer Rocco Galati and the Government of Quebec as being contrary to the appointment criteria of section 6 of the Supreme Court Act. In response, Harper referred the criteria issue to the Supreme Court, as well as the question of whether the government's amendments to the criteria were constitutional. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled in Reference re Supreme Court Act, ss. 5 and 6 that the Nadon appointment was invalid, and that the federal government could not unilaterally amend the Supreme Court Act. Harper subsequently nominated Clement Gascon to the position instead.
Conservative backbencher and post-political life
Harper returned to Ottawa as a Conservative backbencher and addressed a meeting of the Conservative caucus that included defeated MPs in November 2015. Interim leader Rona Ambrose stated that Harper would be in the House for key votes as the member for Calgary Heritage, but had earned the right to keep a low profile after his service as the prime minister. In February 2018, Harper stated that he could have still "easily" been leader of the Conservative Party, but he chose not to amass too much power in order to secure the party's fortunes in the future.
In December 2015, Harper had set up Harper & Associates Consulting Inc., a corporation that lists him a director alongside close associates Ray Novak and Jeremy Hunt.
Harper announced in May 2016 that he planned to resign his seat in the House of Commons during the summer before the fall session of Parliament. On May 26, 2016, he was named as a board member for the Conservative Party’s fundraising arm. The Conservative Fund is noted to have influence on the party operations. Harper and other directors played a role in the removal of Harper–appointed Conservative executive director Dustin Van Vught to avoid backlash from donors and grassroots conservatives. In the same month, Harper delivered a speech to the 2016 Conservative Party convention where his accomplishments as party leader and prime minister were honoured by the party.
In October 2017, Harper received media attention for criticizing Justin Trudeau's handling of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement started by the United States under President Donald Trump, stating that Trudeau was too unwilling to make concessions to the U.S., sided too closely with Mexico, and tried to advance left-wing policies through the renegotiations.
On February 2, 2018, Harper revealed in a statement that he knew about the sexual assault allegations against then Conservative MP Rick Dykstra during the 2015 election but could not justify removing him as a candidate because the investigation was closed by police a year before the election.
On March 26, 2018, Harper attended the international Fellowship of Christians and Jews Gala at Mar-a-Lago where he stated that he expressed support for US President Donald Trump's speech on Jerusalem. On May 9, he expressed support for Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran deal by lending his signature to an ad that appeared in The New York Times a day after the decision.
On November 19, 2018, Harper appeared on a show hosted by Ben Shapiro, where he made comments on issues such as populism, immigration and nationalism. The National Post noted that they "echo the argument made in his recently released book, Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption, which urges conservatives to listen to populist grievances, rather than focus on other priorities like tax cuts for the wealthy."
In January 2019, Harper appeared on a PragerU video explaining why Donald Trump was elected to the presidency in the 2016 United States election. Then in May 2019, he appeared on another PragerU video explaining reasons to support Israel amid the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
On March 11, 2021, during a virtual gathering hosted by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, Harper claimed that the world has entered into a Second Cold War between the United States and China, and that middle-power countries such as Canada are also a part of the rivalry between the two main powers.
Honours
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Harper received the Woodrow Wilson Award on October 6, 2006, for his public service in Calgary. The awards ceremony was held at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary, the same place where he made his victory speech.
Time magazine also named him as Canada's Newsmaker of the Year in 2006. Stephen Handelman wrote "that the prime minister who was once dismissed as a doctrinaire backroom tactician with no experience in government has emerged as a warrior in power".
On June 27, 2008, Harper was awarded the Presidential Gold Medallion for Humanitarianism by B'nai B'rith International. He is the first Canadian to be awarded this medal.
On July 11, 2011, Harper was honoured by Alberta's Blood tribe. He was made Honorary Chief of the Kainai Nation during a ceremony, in which they recognized him for making an official apology on behalf of the Government of Canada for the residential schools abuse. Harper issued this apology in 2008. The chief of the tribe explained that he believes the apology officially started the healing and rebuilding of relations between the federal and native councils. Lester B. Pearson, John Diefenbaker, and Jean Chrétien are the only other prime ministers of Canada to have been awarded the same honorary title.
On September 27, 2012, Harper received the World Statesman of the Year award. This award was offered through a US group of various faith representatives. This occurred at a black tie banquet in New York. Jean Chrétien was one of the previous recipients from Canada.
In August 2016 President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine awarded Stephen Harper with the highest award for foreigners–the Order of Liberty.
In December 2019, it was announced by Governor General Julie Payette that Harper had been appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Honorary degrees
Honorary degrees
Personal life
Harper married Laureen Teskey on December 11, 1993. Laureen was formerly married to New Zealander Neil Fenton from 1985 to 1988. The Harpers have two children: Benjamin and Rachel. Harper is the third prime minister, after Pierre Trudeau and John Turner, to send his children to Rockcliffe Park Public School, in Ottawa. He is a member of the evangelical Christian and Missionary Alliance and attends church at the East Gate Alliance Church in Ottawa.
An avid follower of ice hockey, he has been a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs since his childhood in the Leaside and Etobicoke communities in Toronto. Harper is also a fan of the Calgary Flames. He published a book, A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs and the Rise of Professional Hockey (2013), which chronicles the growth of professional hockey, particularly in Toronto, and writes articles occasionally on the subject. Harper appeared on The Sports Network (TSN) during the broadcast of the Canada–Russia final of the 2007 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. He was interviewed and expressed his views on the state of hockey and his preference for an overtime period in lieu of a shoot-out. In February 2010, Harper interviewed former National Hockey League greats Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe for a Saskatoon Kinsmen Club charity event.
Harper had a cameo appearance in an episode of the television show Corner Gas, which aired March 12, 2007. He owns an extensive vinyl record collection and is a fan of The Beatles and AC/DC. In October 2009, he joined Yo-Yo Ma on stage in a National Arts Centre gala and performed "With a Little Help from My Friends". He was also accompanied by Herringbone, an Ottawa band with whom he regularly practices. He received a standing ovation after providing the piano accompaniment and lead vocals for the song.
In October 2010, Harper taped a cameo appearance in an episode of the television show Murdoch Mysteries, which aired July 20, 2011, during the show's fourth season.
He was the first prime minister to employ a personal stylist, Michelle Muntean, whose duties range from coordinating his clothing to preparing his hair and makeup for speeches and television appearances. While she used to be on the public payroll, she has been paid for by the Conservative Party since "some time [in] 2007".
As of 2013, the Harper family had two cats, Stanley and Gypsy. They have fostered other cats as well.
Electoral record
Bibliography
A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs and the Rise of Professional Hockey
Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption
See also
28th Canadian Ministry The Harper cabinet
List of prime ministers of Canada
List of prime ministers of Elizabeth II
Canada–United States softwood lumber dispute
Conservative Party of Canada
Reform Party of Canada
Canadian Alliance
Conservatism in Canada
Canada's Global Markets Action Plan
References
Further reading
External links
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Writers from Toronto
Companions of the Order of Canada |
9688810 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical%20disk | Logical disk | A logical disk, logical volume or virtual disk (VD or vdisk for short) is a virtual device that provides an area of usable storage capacity on one or more physical disk drive(s) in a computer system. The disk is described as logical or virtual because it does not actually exist as a single physical entity in its own right. The goal of the logical disk is to provide computer software with what seems a contiguous storage area, sparing them the burden of dealing with the intricacies of storing files on multiple physical units. Most modern operating systems provide some form of logical volume management.
Levels
Logical disks can be defined at various levels in the storage infrastructure.
Operating system
An operating system may define volumes or logical disks and assign each to one physical disk, more than one physical disk or part of the storage area of a physical disk. For example, Windows NT can create several partitions on a hard disk drive, each of which a separate volume with its own file system. Each floppy disk drive, optical disc drive or USB flash drive in Windows NT becomes one volume. Windows NT can also create partitions that span multiple hard disks drives. Each volume is identified with a drive letter.
Storage area network
Storage area networks (SANs) consolidate inhomogeneous storage devices. As such logical disks or vdisks allow computer programs to access files stored on a SAN.
Storage subsystem
A hardware-level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) exposes itself to the operating system as one logical disk while the array itself consists of several disks. The operating system either does not know that the hardware with which it is interfacing is a RAID, or knows but still does not concern itself with intricate details of storage. In case of the latter, specialized management, maintenance and diagnostics software dedicated to that specific RAID may run on the operating system.
Motivation
When IBM first released the magnetic disk drive in the 1956 IBM 305, a single disk drive would be directly attached to each system, managed as a single entity. As the development of drives continued, it became apparent that reliability was a problem and systems using RAID technology evolved, so that more than one physical disk is used to produce a single logical disk.
Many modern business information technology environments use a SAN. Here, many storage devices are connected to many host server devices in a network. A single RAID array may provide some capacity to one server, and some capacity to another. Therefore, logical disks are used to partition the available capacity and provide the amount of storage needed by each host from a common pool of logical disks. The IBM SAN Volume Controller uses the term "vdisk" to refer to these logical disks.
Today, the rationale for the logical disk approach starts to be questioned and solutions that offer more flexibility and better abstraction are increasingly needed.
See also
Storage virtualization
References
Computer data storage
Storage virtualization |
18385750 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget%20Systems | Puget Systems | Puget Systems is a custom computer business based in Auburn, Washington. They operate primarily through their website, and sell a mixture of custom and preconfigured computers including desktops, workstations, and servers. The business was founded by Jon Bach in 2000.
History
Puget Systems was founded by Jon Bach, a student at the University of Washington, in 2000 under the name Puget Sound Systems. The business was named for the Puget Sound region in which it is located, but the name caused confusion about their services and was changed to Puget Custom Computers for clarity early in the firm's life. In early 2008, it was shortened to Puget Systems.
The company was originally run out of the owner's home, and moved to an industrial warehouse as it grew. Puget Systems is currently located in Auburn, Washington.
Products
For many years, Puget focused on building custom computer systems with an emphasis on quiet performance. During that time, the company catered to home users and gamers as well as specialists who wanted a computer tailored to their needs, such as video editing or day trading. Puget offered fans to reduce sound levels, which became their specialty.
Along with custom systems, Puget also sold a range of preconfigured computers, with names indicative of their purpose (e.g., the Deluge was water-cooled and the Genesis was optimized for content creation).
In 2007, Puget built a computer submerged in mineral oil. The project was inspired by similar computers submerged in vegetable oil, which provides very even cooling but has the disadvantages of being translucent yellow and going rancid after a few months. The mineral oil used for this project is clear and does not decay. Oil has a high specific heat capacity, so it takes this computer approximately twelve hours of operation to reach its peak temperature of eighty degrees Celsius. A radiator and pump could be attached to lower the temperature significantly. After more than a year of reported use, the only minor problem indicated was from oil wicking into peripherals and making a mess. While Puget never sold mineral oil computers, they offered a DIY kit and provided a construction tutorial on their website. This kit was discontinued in November 2014.
In the late 2010s, Puget Systems developed in-house benchmark testing for applications such as Adobe After Effects and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve. This appears to have coincided with a shift away from their earlier focus on customization and gaming, toward selling software-specific workstations for content creation, engineering, and scientific computing.
References
External links
Puget Systems website
Interview with owner Jon Bach
Computer companies of the United States
Companies based in Kent, Washington
Companies established in 2000 |
21007199 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Softwire | The Softwire | The Softwire is a series of four young adult science fiction novels by PJ Haarsma. It is set in space, in an original fictional universe of Haarsma's creation. A group of around two hundred children are orphaned in outer space on their journey to the Rings of Orbis: giant, planet-like rings which surround a wormhole. The children's parents are killed during an incident in the "seed-ship" in which they are traveling and the computer controlling the ship has raised the children—the eldest of whom are thirteen-years-old as the ship reaches Orbis.
By Orbisian law, the children are required to enter into four years (or "rotations", as the aliens called it) of indentured servitude to pay for their trip. Each novel takes place during one year of indentured servitude. One of the children, thirteen-year-old Johnny Turnbull (JT), becomes the first ever human softwire—someone who can "speak to" and "enter into" computers with his mind. The Softwire focuses on JT, his sister Ketheria, and their friends, Max and Theodore.
The books are accompanied by a free online role-playing game called Rings of Orbis which requires players to answer questions about the novels in order to solve puzzles and advance within the game.
The first three chapters of "The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1", read by Haarsma's close friend Nathan Fillion, are freely available on the web as a taster.
Background
The Softwire details the fictional account of human orphans condemned to slavery in an alien world. Although completely comprehensible as a functioning civilization, this alien world has no similarity to anything on Earth.
The Softwire exists on two planes: simple, adventurous tales of a young boy discovering his purpose in life; and complex, compelling renditions of corruption and oppression, and their effect upon the human spirit. The overriding premise behind the series is the maturation of Johnny T as he struggles to overcome an abusive domination which pushes him to fulfill his destiny as a leader, and as a guardian. Positive themes which are explored include: compassion, perseverance, fear, family, kindness, cruelty, self-reliance and the power of positivism. A constant question posed is whether a person can retain his sense of ethics when consistently exposed to situations of desperate adversity.
Each book takes place on one of four, alien-constructed rings, which surround the XYZ wormhole. Each ring has a specific purpose toward the maintenance of Orbisian society: Orbis 1 is the seat of government; Orbis 2 is the industrial center which houses crystal refineries; Orbis 3 is the center of commerce for Citizens who control the rings; and Orbis 4 is the location of the service industries for the system. The XYZ wormhole is used by various creatures for commercial purposes: the selling of precious crystals mined from two nearby moons to civilizations throughout the galaxy.
The Citizens are individuals from varied alien races; they maintain control of Orbisian wealth through the Trading Council. Most are lazy and most have lost all compassion for lower classes on a societal scale. Newcomers flock to Orbis in search of a better life, agreeing to become indentured servants for the privilege. These newcomers are called Knudniks, and are treated as nothing more than property. Knudniks agree to serve four rotations of strictly enforced labor on each ring (roughly the equivalent of one Earth year), naively believing that they will automatically escape their inferior status and thus become wealthy and powerful in an Orbisian, "enlightened" world. However, they soon discover that greed and corruption govern their society.
Orbis is governed by highly respected Keepers, i.e. two-headed aliens of great wisdom and power. They are considerably kinder than the Citizens and do not abuse their power. The Keepers affirm the agreements formed after the War of Ten Thousand Rotations, and they patiently await a return of the Ancients. The Keepers revere the Ancients, and hope for their reappearance to restore the Rings to a former state of enlightenment, despite a fact that the Ancients have not been seen for sixty thousand rotations. Also highly respected are Nagools, i.e. bizarre, spiritual beings who protect the teachings of the Ancients.
Banished from Orbis are the Space Jumpers, the protectors of the Keepers and the Rings. These mysterious beings have been absent from Orbis for so long that they are almost legendary among the Orbisians. Space Jumpers are greatly feared by Citizens, for Space Jumpers have an ability to "jump" through Space and Time. It is this combination of mystique and close affiliation with the Keepers that has brought about their exile.
It is also into this alien world of tenuous governmental rule, upper class greed, lower class oppression, and hope for the return of enlightenment that an unassuming, thirteen-year-old, human boy suddenly enters and sets into motion a change. Johnny T is the fulcrum for the future of an entire civilization.
Synopsis
Virus on Orbis 1
Virus on Orbis 1 introduces Johnny Turnbull, his sister Ketheria, and a group of orphaned children who are forced into slavery on the rings of Orbis. It opens on board Renaissance, a human seed ship where JT lives with 200 other children, orphaned in space. After their parents have died in sleepers, apparently due to a malfunction, the children are raised by a ship's computer known as Mother. JT's biggest problem is in dealing with Switzer, the ship's bully; otherwise, he lives a quiet and unassuming life watching over his mute sister, Ketheria...except, JT has one oddity: he communicates telephatically with Mother and claims to receive answers in return. JT always wonders what kind of fantastic world his parents once desired for a new home. Now, as Renaissance arrives at Orbis 1, he is going to find out.
Orbis 1 seems wondrous. Yet the children are immediately shocked to learn that they will be expected to fulfill their parents' contract for their passage. Their freedom which they once enjoyed on the Renaissance is quickly reduced to slavery. Now their new "Guarantor", Boohral is a heartless Citizen. Intrigue builds. JT and the Orbisians soon learn that JT can enter computers with his mind, then later with his essence—that is, JT is a "softwire" (the very first human softwire) and it is this use (or abuse) of telepathic computer-interaction which propels The Softwire series forward. Since the Orbisian Universe is run by an enormous, self-correcting, central computer, JT's gift is great cause for concern. Many Citizens aspire to possess him so that he can be used for their own gain. JT just wishes to be normal.
Unfortunately, the central computer begins to malfunction. Suspicion is immediately cast upon the young human softwire. JT is imprisoned. He remains there for scientific study until a breakout (aided by Space Jumpers) sets him on a journey inside the central computer. Meanwhile, the Keepers and the members of the Trading Council suspect one another of creating an Orbisian civil war. No one believes JT's claim that a being, living inside the computer – a virus – is responsible. As the situation spirals uncontrollably, the Keepers give JT a choice: life permanently inside the computer to avert the war, or death. Neither is acceptable.
JT gets his chance to seek his own solution when he is kidnapped by Madame Lee, the despicable head of the Trading Council. She needs JT in order to gain control of the central computer, to destroy the Keepers security on Orbis 1. Then she will march on Magna, the city of the Keepers, with her army of fishy Neewalkers. Meanwhile, she holds JT's sister prisoner, and threatens to kill Ketheria if JT does not do as Madame Lee commands.
Madame Lee spins an astonishing tale asserting that JT's father was a Space Jumper. She claims he tired of living in exile and despised the discord on the Rings of Orbis. She says he left for Earth to complete a final mission for the Trust – one that Madame Lee did not want fulfilled. She claims responsibility for the deaths of all the adults aboard the Renaissance.
JT refuses to accept that his father was anything other than human, and is filled with vengeance for his father's death. He formulates a plan to communicate with the virus to get her to help him warn the Keepers of Madame Lee's plans. But his plan is fraught with danger: if he is separated from his physical body for too long, his body will die and he will be condemned to live inside the computer for all eternity. JT finds the virus as she struggles for survival against the self-correcting central computer, and he works quickly to give her a translation codec, the means to save her from destruction by copying herself into a new destination. JT soon learns that the virus has been fighting Madame Lee's corrupt programming (which was responsible for the many malfunctions) and the virus is a benign consciousness with a name – Vairocina. As soon as JT and Vairocina get through the Keeper's security portals to warn them of Madame Lee's army, JT and Vairocina find that Madame Lee is waiting with more vicious programs: one which contains Madame Lee herself and her scheme is to control all of Orbis by controlling the central computer. Suddenly JT must battle monstrous digital soldiers, gaining power by losing connection with his physical form. He rips Madame Lee's essence from her program and she is systematically dismantled and sent to the trash. In the end, JT narrowly escapes death, and gains an important ally in a new friend: Vairocina.
Throughout his ordeal, JT questions the decisions made by his parents whom he never knew. Yet he holds onto a positive spirit as he contemplates the significance of the Rings of Orbis: a strange civilization beyond the security of the seed ship which he left behind.
Betrayal on Orbis 2
Betrayal on Orbis 2 is the second novel in The Softwire series. It was released on 25 March 2008.
Betrayal opens with the enslaved children being moved to Orbis 2 for their second rotation of servitude. Their hopes for a better position within the social hierarchy (due to JT's heroic efforts on Orbis 1) are dashed suddenly when their aged and feeble Guarantor tries to sell them into a seedy, underground market. A spectacular disaster quickly saves them from this terrible condition, but their fate is replaced by a work ethic under a horridly gross alien; he lives in a container of smelly glop. He is more sinister than their former Guarantor but JT finds solice in acquiring a new position of responsibility: Because he is a softwire, he will be able to communicate with Toll, one of two, gigantic Samirans, i.e. water creatures whose job it is to cool the crystals mined from the moons, Ki and Ta. Samirans live in an enormous tank on Orbis 2—though lately, Toll, the male Samiran, has become very agitated, and thus has been damaging the tank. This causes a massive flood and massive worry. Samirans are integral to the economy of the Orbisian system but the central computer cannot translate their language and no one is able to communicate with them until JT: it is his job to find out why Toll has grown restless and violent.
JT's first effort to speak with Toll results in near-death. As he lies semi-conscious, he overhears talk of a mysterious "Trust" and the "Scion". His subsequent visits with the huge, aquatic creature result in a bond of friendship. However, Toll hints at a subterfuge afoot, and explains that he and Smool, a female Samiran, have served for nearly two thousand rotations. Toll angrily demands their release, much to the upset of all the self-centered Trading Council members. Making matters worse, Ketheria, JT's telepathic sister, reveals that Smool is pregnant. Ketheria now has wisdom far beyond her years and is fascinated with the OIO Philosophy of the Nagools. Now, she is no longer mute, but rather quiet and clear, a voice of sadness and pain.
Although the plot revolves around JT discovering and stopping a betrayal of terrible consequences, there are smaller instances of loyalties betrayed among the children, even by JT himself. The consequences of these smaller betrayals are profound, especially for JT, as he is put in a leadership position, and then forced to administer punishment against the other children. The action-filled plot comes to a head as the various betrayals deepen and as JT works to uncover an unbelievable web of greed.
Toll takes JT to Toll Town, located deep within the depths of the Samiran tank. Toll Town is a secret hub from which operations are run to free knudniks from their Guarantors and get them passage off of Orbis. He trusts JT to keep Toll Town a secret. Like Madame Lee on Orbis 1, Toll tells JT that JT's father was a Space Jumper, with whom Toll was acquainted one thousand rotations ago. Toll shares an important detail regarding Father's mission for the Trust: bring back a special human child to Orbis.
Meanwhile, JT's nemesis, the bully Switzer, receives a comeuppance when the children set out on an adventurous escapade through ancient tunnels; they soon discover an old Space Jumper's belt. Switzer is so desperate to escape Orbis that he foolishly attempts to use the belt, not thinking twice about turning his back on his one and only friend, Dalton. In turn, Switzer's actions cause JT—in a frantic attempt to prevent Switzer from using the belt—to betray Toll's trust and to reveal the secret of Toll Town. Switzer eventually "dies" because of that incident.
The results of these betrayals and an attempted space jump are both spectacular...and catastrophic.
The children are granted a rare moment of fun at the magnificent Festival of the Harvest. But their merriment is suddenly halted when it becomes clear how horrifically low greed will drive Obisian actions. JT discovers although the agreement to release Toll and Smool will be kept, the intention of the Trading Council is to enslave the Samirans''' soon-to-be-born child as a replacement. Now it is up to JT to release Toll and Smool into the Orbisian ocean before Toll realizes the sinister plot and causes a massive flood; it will drown everyone in Core City, including the human children. JT works with his computer-dwelling ally, Vairocina. They manipulate the various control gates and safety mechanisms between the Samiran tank and the open ocean. Simultaneously they rescue the refugees of Toll Town, fighting mechanized Sea Dragons and witnessing the birth of the Samiran baby. Once Toll and his family are set free, JT has an opportunity to choose freedom for both himself and his sister at the expense of leaving his friends behind—though they are, in essence, his family. It is not a betrayal JT is willing to consider.
As in the first novel, the questions about why JT's parents wanted to travel to Orbis persist. But this time more clues are shared to heighten the mystery. JT's maturation is evident as he learns to accept the responsibilities of his extraordinary gift.The Softwire Series carefully chronicles the downward spiral of the children as their hopelessness deepens under the cruel treatment of the Orbisians; their sadness and loss of their innocence is seen through JT's eyes. Yet the reader directly witnesses JT's struggle to hold onto his compassion, his hope and his moral standards. JT is flawed and fails at times, but his introspective intelligence pulls him through.
Rings of Orbis
Races
Honines
Humans
Keepers
Neewalkers
Belarans
Choi
Solinns
Trefaldoors
Samirans
Ancients
Characters
Johnny "JT" Turnbull—the very first human softwireKetheria Turnbull—his mute sister, wiser than her years and acts old for her age, is discovered to be a telepath, one that can read minds.
Theylor—one of the Keepers of Orbis, discovers JT's extraordinary gift.
Madame Lee—marches her army of Neewalkers against Magna, the city of the Keepers, her "essence" was ripped into the computer by JT, and is assumed to be dead.
Randall Switzer—attempts a space jump and disappears soon after on Orbis 2, reappears on Orbis 3 as the wormhole pirate Ceesar, whose original name Switzer was mispronounced by the alien who saves his life
Vairocina—The gentle virus who is also the friend of Johnny "JT" Turnbull, "lives" inside the Central Computer
Toll—threatens to flood Core City with the oceans of Orbis
Charlie Norton—One human adult from Orbis 1 that helps JT and is a friend of JT, dies on Orbis 3 as JT's "guarantor".
Maxine "Max" Bennett—One of JT's closest friends, found out on Orbis 3 to be JT's girlfriend.
Theodore Malone—Another one of JT's friends, who finds joy in counting things and shows OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) characteristics.
Dalton—The best friend/dimmer clone (stated in The Softwire Virus on Orbis 1) of Switzer, and was with him when he died
Nugget—Weegin's son, who seems to like Ketheria
Rings of Orbis game
Author PJ Haarsma has created an online role playing game, Rings of Orbis, which is set in the same universe as The Softwire books. Players are encouraged to read the books to facilitate solving puzzles within the game. PJ Haarsma and The Rings of Orbis were featured in a front-page article in The New York Times about encouraging reluctant readers with video games.
Reception
Awards and nominationsThe Softwire series has been nominated for two Cybils (The Children's and Young Adult Blogger's Literary Awards): one in 2006 for Virus and another in 2008 for Betrayal.Virus on Orbis 1 was selected for the New York Public Library's "Books for the Teen Age 2007" list. The first book was also given a "Top Choice Award" by Flamingnet Young Adult Book Reviews. The South Carolina Associate of School Librarians (SCASL) nominated Virus on Orbis 1'' for their Junior Book Award.
External links
Official website for The Softwire
Rings of Orbis game
PJ Haarsma's website
First three chapters of "The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1" read by nathan Fillion for free Download at IGN
References
Science fiction book series
Young adult novel series
Novels about orphans
Children's science fiction novels |
14758500 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbs%20Adams | Hobbs Adams | John Hobbs Adams (November 2, 1902 – September 24, 2002) was an American football player and coach. He served two tenures as football coach for the Kansas State Wildcats (separated by his service in World War II) and also coached high school football in San Diego.
Playing career
Adams grew up in San Diego and attended San Diego High School, where he starred in football, baseball, basketball and track, before graduating in 1922. Adams went on to play at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where he captained the 1925 Trojan football team and also played baseball.
While playing on the USC football team in 1924, he was a key player that helped the team defeat Syracuse by score of 16–0, where future Kansas State head coach Pappy Waldorf was playing (Adams would later hold the head coaching position at Kansas State).
Coaching career
Assistant coaching
Prior to coaching at Kansas State, Adams was an assistant coach at the University of Southern California (USC) for five seasons under Howard Jones.
Kansas State
Adams was the 18th head football coach for the Kansas State Wildcats in Manhattan, Kansas and he held that position for three seasons: 1940, 1941, and then again in 1946 (Ward Haylett and Lud Fiser were head coaches from 1942 through 1945). His overall coaching record at Kansas State was 4–21–2. The bright spots in his coaching career included a 1940 victory over the cross-state rival Kansas Jayhawks by a score of 20–0 and a 12–6 victory in the 1941 season over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Head coaching record
References
1902 births
2002 deaths
American football ends
Kansas State Wildcats football coaches
Jacksonville Naval Air Station Flyers football coaches
USC Trojans baseball players
USC Trojans football coaches
USC Trojans football players
San Diego High School alumni
Sportspeople from San Diego
Players of American football from San Diego |
23436202 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan%20Trefler | Alan Trefler | Alan N. Trefler (born March 10, 1956) is an American billionaire businessman and chess master best known as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pegasystems, a multinational software company he founded in 1983. Prior to Pegasystems, in 1975 Trefler tied for first place in the World Open Chess Championship with grandmaster Pal Benko, afterwards working as a software engineer for Casher Associates and TMI Systems. Founding Pegasystems at the age of 27, he took the company Public company in 1996, with Trefler remaining clerk and president until 1999 and afterwards becoming CEO. With a 52 percent ownership stake in Pegasystems, his net worth surpassed $1 billion in 2013 and in March 2017 he appeared on the Forbes Billionaire's List for the first time. In 2014 he authored the book Build for Change, which addresses changing consumer markets. Involved in philanthropy, in 1997 he established the Trefler Foundation.
Early life and education
Alan Trefler was born to a Jewish family in 1956 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Dorothy (née Pugatch) and Eric Trefler. Trefler was raised in Brookline, Massachusetts with his brother Leon. His mother, a daughter of immigrants from Eastern Europe, worked as a schoolteacher. His father, a Holocaust survivor who came to the United States from Poland after World War II, owned and operated Trefler's, a restorer of art and furniture. This business is still family owned and operating as of 2021. Working at his family's store while young and starting to play chess around the age of seven, Trefler would later become high school chess champion of Massachusetts and win various regional competitions. He graduated from Brookline High School in 1973. Trefler went on to Dartmouth College, where he studied economics and computer science and remained active in chess. At the age of 19, in 1975 he tied for first place in the World Open Chess Championship in New York with grandmaster Pal Benko. Also at Dartmouth, he was the winner of the John G. Kemeny prize in computing. He graduated with a BS in 1977.
Business career
Software engineering
Although he attained the level of chess master and considered going professional, after Trefler graduated from Dartmouth he moved into software engineering instead. In the early 1980s he developed computer systems that could play chess, later applying the same business techniques to teaching computers how to process business rules. Between 1978 and 1980 Trefler was a senior project manager for Casher Associates Inc., a business process management company in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He then worked at TMI Systems, where he led the development of their funds transfer product from 1980 to 1983.
Founder of Pegasystems
He founded Pegasystems in April 1983, taking on the roles of CEO and chairman at the age of 27. Expressing frustration with the "primitive" computer systems available for companies such as banks and insurance companies, he states that "when I started Pega, it was with the vision that we could create a set of metaphors –an intermediate visual language that would enable business people to more directly instruct the machine... [and] get the computer to really understand how business people wanted things to work.... And it turns out to be a fairly hard problem to solve." Basing the company in Cambridge, Massachusetts with Citibank as his first client, during the company's early years Trefler focused on providing case management for companies such as American Express.
The company went public in 1996 on NASDAQ. Inventing a number of patents for use in Pegasystems' software architecture, in 1998 Trefler was granted a United States patent for Pegasystems' distinctive rules-based architecture, which provides the framework for Pegasystems' business process management (BPM) solutions. Trefler remained clerk of Pegasystems Inc. until June 1999, and president until October 1999. He remained CEO and chairman of the company's board of directors.
Recent work at Pegasystems
In 2009 Trefler won the Stevie Award for Computer Software CEO of the Year at the American Business Awards. In March 2010, Pegasystems acquired Chordiant for around $161.5 million, which gave Pegasystems access to new markets such as telecommunications and healthcare. The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council named him their Public Company CEO of the Year in 2011. With a 52 percent ownership stake in Pegasystems, his net worth surpassed $1 billion on November 25, 2013. His Pegasystems salary was $751,526 in 2014. That year, Business Insider ranked him the 8th lowest paid CEO in the tech industry.
In 2014 he authored and published Build for Change, a book focused on the management of customers and business processes. A Forbes contributor related that the book made "a convincing argument" that companies needed to prepare for changes in customer behavior, or face negative repercussions.
Pegasystems had 3,000 employees, 30 offices, and "more than half a billion dollars in revenue" by early 2015. In 2015, courts ruled in Trefler's and Pegasystems' favor in a copyright infringement suit filed by YYZ, a company the press described as a patent troll. Trefler has been recognized by the Babson College Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, and he speaks publicly on business and software topics at various events and conferences. Among other publications, he has appeared in Barron's, the BBC, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Bloomberg Television. Trefler made the Forbes Billionaire's List in March 2017.
Chess career
A master-level chess player who had been playing chess since his childhood, Trefler competed in the 1975 World Open Chess Championship in New York City. Still a college student at Dartmouth, he entered the tournament with a 2075 Elo rating, 125 points below the lowest master-rated player, ranking him 115th overall in the tournament. He went on to be crowned co-champion along with International Grandmaster Pal Benko, who was rated at 2504. Trefler also placed ahead of Grandmasters such as Walter Browne and Nicolas Rossolimo, as well as future Grandmaster Michael Rohde. Trefler competed in a charity chess tournament in 2010 alongside grandmasters such as Garry Kasparov and Boaz Weinstein.
Philanthropy
Trefler and his wife donated $1 million to Dorchester High School in Dorchester, Boston in 1995. They established The Trefler Foundation in 1997, which seeks to improve urban public education in the Boston area. The Treflers were early supporters of the nonprofit Year Up, and in 2015 they founded Union & Fifth, where proceeds raised from donated clothes benefit various charities.
Personal life
Trefler married his wife Pamela Reinhard in 1992, who at the time was working as an investment banker. The couple reside in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Publishing history
References
External links
Trefler's Profile at Pegasystems
Trefler Foundation
Trefler's & Sons Antique Repair since 1921
1956 births
Living people
Businesspeople from Boston
American chess players
Jewish American philanthropists
American technology chief executives
Dartmouth College alumni
American billionaires
Brookline High School alumni
21st-century American Jews |
68395966 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler%20Gilbert | Tyler Gilbert | Tyler Gilbert (born December 22, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his major league debut in 2021. In his first major league start, on August 14, 2021, Gilbert threw a no-hitter.
Amateur career
Gilbert attended San Lorenzo Valley High School in Felton, California. After he graduated, Gilbert enrolled at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), where he began his college baseball career with the SBCC Vaqueros. In 2013, his sophomore year, he pitched to a 9–2 win-loss record and a 2.43 earned run average (ERA). Gilbert was named the Western State Conference's pitcher of the year for the North Division. He was offered a scholarship from the University of Southern California (USC) and continued his college baseball career with the USC Trojans.
Professional career
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies selected Gilbert in the sixth round, with the 174th overall selection, of the 2015 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with the Phillies, who assigned him to the Williamsport Crosscutters of the Class A-Short Season New York-Penn League in 2015. Gilbert had a 4–3 win-loss record and a 2.79 ERA with Williamsport. He pitched for the Lakewood BlueClaws of the Class A South Atlantic League in 2016, and finished the season with a 7–9 win-loss record and a 3.98 ERA. In 2017, Gilbert pitched for the Clearwater Threshers of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League, and he pitched to a 2.95 ERA.
Gilbert began the 2018 season with the Reading Fightin Phils of the Class AA Eastern League. He had played as a starting pitcher until his promotion to Reading, when he became a relief pitcher. With Reading in 2018, Gilbert pitched to a 2.86 ERA. He received a midseason promotion to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs of the Class AAA International League. After the 2018 season, Gilbert pitched for the Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Professional Baseball League. Gilbert returned to Lehigh Valley in 2019, and pitched to a 2.83 ERA during the 2019 season.
Los Angeles Dodgers
On February 5, 2020, the Phillies traded Gilbert to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Kyle Garlick. He played for the Dodgers during spring training in 2020 before the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Gilbert from the Dodgers organization in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft after the 2020 season. He began the 2021 season with the Reno Aces of Triple-A West, and pitched to a 5–2 win-loss record and a 3.44 ERA with 50 strikeouts. The Diamondbacks promoted Gilbert to the major leagues on August 3. He made his major league debut that night, throwing an inning as a relief pitcher without allowing a run.
On August 14, 2021, Gilbert, making his first major league start, threw a no-hitter in a 7–0 Diamondbacks win against the San Diego Padres at Chase Field. He struck out five batters, walked three and threw 64 of 102 pitches for strikes. Gilbert became the fourth pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his first major league start, and the first since Bobo Holloman in 1953. It was the third no-hitter in Diamondbacks history, the first since Edwin Jackson's no-hitter in 2010, and the first at Chase Field. His no-hitter was also the eighth of the MLB season, tying the single-season record set in 1884.
Personal life
Tyler Gilbert was born to parents Greg and Peggy Martin Gilbert in Santa Cruz County, California. Following the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season, Gilbert worked alongside his father as an electrician. He is dating Caitlin Akeman.
See also
List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
Rule 5 draft results
References
External links
USC Trojans bio
1993 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Santa Cruz, California
Baseball players from California
Major League Baseball pitchers
Arizona Diamondbacks players
Santa Barbara City Vaqueros baseball players
USC Trojans baseball players
Williamsport Crosscutters players
Lakewood BlueClaws players
Clearwater Threshers players
Reading Fightin Phils players
Lehigh Valley IronPigs players
Tigres del Licey players
American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic
Reno Aces players |
684595 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipconfig | Ipconfig | ipconfig (standing for "Internet Protocol configuration") is a console application program of some computer operating systems that displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values and refreshes Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) settings.
Implementations
The command is available in Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, and in Apple macOS. The ReactOS version was developed by Ged Murphy and is licensed under the GPL.
Microsoft Windows, ReactOS
The ipconfig command supports the command-line switch /all. This results in more detailed information than ipconfig alone.
An important additional feature of ipconfig is to force refreshing of the DHCP IP address of the host computer to request a different IP address. This is done using two commands in sequence. First, ipconfig /release is executed to force the client to immediately give up its lease by sending the server a DHCP release notification which updates the server's status information and marks the old client's IP address as "available". Then, the command ipconfig /renew is executed to request a new IP address. Where a computer is connected to a cable or DSL modem, it may have to be plugged directly into the modem network port to bypass the router, before using ipconfig /release and turning off the power for a period of time, to ensure that the old IP address is taken by another computer.
The /flushdns parameter can be used to clear the Domain Name System (DNS) cache to ensure future requests use fresh DNS information by forcing hostnames to be resolved again from scratch.
Apple macOS
ipconfig in Mac OS X serves as a wrapper to the IPConfiguration agent, and can be used to control the Bootstrap Protocol and DHCP client from the command-line interface. Like most Unix-based operating systems, Mac OS X also uses ifconfig for more direct control over network interfaces, such as configuring static IP addresses. The Ifconfig command in Linux has been replaced by the IP command
See also
ifconfig
References
Further reading
External links
Windows
Microsoft TechNet Ipconfig article
VariableGHz article detailing ipconfig settings in Vista
Windows 95, 98, ME; Windows 2000 and XP MS-DOS shell syntax
Mac OS X
Windows communication and services
Windows administration
MacOS-only software made by Apple Inc. |
45309650 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xangati | Xangati | Xangati, Inc is an American-based private company, that provides service assurance analytics software for enterprises and service providers, operating in virtualized data centers and hybrid cloud environments.
Xangati is a virtual appliance that runs on VMware vSphere. It manages the entire end-to-end IT infrastructure including physical and virtual machines (VMs) running the Windows or Linux operating systems. It supports Hyper-V and XenServer based VMs and has deep integration into NetApp fabric-attached storage (FAS) systems. Xangati collects its information from protocols and APIs (no agents), including servers, switches, storage systems, hypervisors and services such as those delivering VMs, virtual desktops, and virtual applications as well as all mobile devices, PCs and Apple computers.
Headquartered in San Jose, California, Xangati currently provides virtualized services for over 400 organizations worldwide and has a development center in Pune, India. Subramanian Sundaresh has been the Chief Executive Officer and President of Xangati since November 2013.
Xangati was acquired by Virtual Instruments for an undisclosed amount in November 2016.
History
In 2006, Xangati was founded by Jagan Jagannathan and Vasu Vasudevan. The mission of the organization was to create IT management software that could respond more efficiently than existing solutions to the dynamic nature of cloud and virtualization environments. The word Xangati is derived from the Sanskrit word "Sangathi", which means "coming together to know more about ourselves."
Xangati's initial focus was on physical network performance management wherein Xangati's real-time and highly scalable approach addressed emerging needs of CSPs and NSPs as they dealt with the expanding number of IPv4 and IPv6 endpoints.
In 2011, Xangati refocused on performance management for enterprise virtualized environments and partnered with Calix to resell its physical network performance management offerings. Xangati's offerings to the virtualization market include the VI suite for infrastructure performance management and the VDI suite for virtual desktop performance management.
Products
Xangati Virtual Infrastructure (VI) Suite tracks the performance of the virtual and physical infrastructure components in an IT environment. Xangati software collects application-level metrics from VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V about users and analyzes it. The software also finds data contention storms that can negatively affect the performance of virtualized applications.
Xangati Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Suite provides data monitoring and predictive analysis for Citrix and VMware VDI environments. The software provides detailed tracking of infrastructure components that affect VDI end-user experiences.
Xangati VirtualApp Suite: The VirtualApp Suite is a performance enhancement solution for Citrix XenApp end-users, fully integrated with HDX technologies.
Xangati WebApp Suite gathers metrics from HTTP, HTML and CSS Web Servers about end-users and their applications, and correlates those metrics with interactions collected from the IT infrastructure.
Xangati Network Suite provides a visual overview of all of the wired and wireless networks in the circulatory system of a datacenter to enable faster problem resolution.
See also
Performance management
Virtualization
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Virtual Machine
Storage Hypervisor
Application Virtualization
User Environment Management
References
External links
Real-Time Remediation: Enhancing the Value of Virtual ADCs by Integrating Performance Data Analytics
SaaS Monitoring Service for IT, Operations and Development Podcast with Atchison Frazer and Julian Box
Software appliances
Software companies based in California
Software companies of the United States |
796216 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEdit | NEdit | NEdit, the Nirvana editor, is a text editor and source code editor for the X Window System. It has an interface similar to text editors on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh, rather than to older UNIX editors like Emacs. It was initially developed by Mark Edel for Fermilab and released under a very restrictive licence, but today it is distributed under the less restrictive GPL-2.0-or-later (plus Motif clause) and is developed as an independent open-source project by a team of developers. Nedit was also distributed with the IRIX operating system.
NEdit is extensible through a C-like macro language, and it features automatic indentation and syntax highlighting for a wide variety of computer languages. NEdit can also process tags files generated using the Unix ctags command or the Exuberant Ctags program.
Its user interface is built using the Motif toolkit, which made it an immediate success with a wide range of Unix platforms whose user interfaces use that toolkit. For a fully open source version, the alternative LessTif library could be used instead, but more recently the main Motif toolkit was made open source as well.
Major development on SourceForge stopped in 2010, with minor updates being made as recently as February 2017. According to the project's news page the source repository has been converted from CVS to Git in September 2014.
Version 5.6 was released in December 2014, after more than ten years since the release of the previous version, reflecting changes made during the time. This code is based on what was in the Debian NEdit package for some time.
XNEdit - Unicode support
From 2018 the develop continue on GitHub with XNEdit, a fork of the last 5.7 sources. Last version 1.4 is maintained with full Unicode support, antialiased text rendering, modern Open/Save dialog and Drag&Drop of tabs added.
See also
List of text editors
Comparison of text editors
List of Unix commands
References
External links
Alternate Niki website
Users' mailing list
Developers' mailing list
NEdit manual
Free text editors
Unix text editors
Linux text editors
Linux integrated development environments
Free integrated development environments
Software using the GPL license
X Window programs
Free software programmed in C
Software that uses Motif (software) |
39691733 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim%20Lister | Tim Lister | Tim Lister (born 1949) is an American software engineer and author with specialty in design, software risk management, and human aspects of technological work. He is a Principal of The Atlantic Systems Guild Inc. and a fellow of the Cutter Consortium.
Peopleware
Lister's work with collaborator Tom DeMarco on non-technical factors affecting team and individual performance eventually resulted in their book, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams originally published in 1987. This work was the subject of a retrospective special session of IEEE International Conference on Software 2007 commemorating 20th anniversary of its publication. Peopleware's prescriptions had mixed reception, with environmental factors like relative quiet and interrupt protection generally accepted, but other suggestions, particularly the use of enclosed space around a team in preference to open plan seating, largely ignored.
The authors' Coding War Games study which supplies evidence for the book's conclusions about the effects of workplace factors on performance is still being cited in articles about workplace design more than 25 years after its initial publication.
The term "Peopleware" is in general use among software practitioners to describe the extent to which an organization does or not conform to the book's proposed ideals.
Patterns of organizational behavior
Lister is one of the originators of work that characterizes organizational culture using an approach first advocated (for architecture) by Christopher Alexander et al. In this scheme, organizations are classified by the extent to which they fit or do not fit one or more of 86 common patterns. The 86 proposed patterns serve as an organizational "pattern language" much as Alexander's 250 patterns make up an architectural pattern language.
Published works
Lister is author or co-author of the following works:
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams with co-author Tom DeMarco, Addison-Wesley Professional; 3 edition (July 1, 2013)
Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior with co-authors Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Steve McMenamin, James Robertson and Suzanne Robertson, Dorset House (March 3, 2008)
Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects with co-author, Tom DeMarco, Dorset House (March 2003)
"Estimating in Actual Time," Proceedings, Agile Development Conference, July, 2005.<ref>{{cite web|title=Proceedings, Agile Development Conference (ADC'05) July, 2005|url=http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/adc/2005/2487/00/24870132-abs.html}}
</ref>
"Risk Management Is Project Management for Adults," IEEE Software, May, 1997.
"Programmer Performance and the Effects of the Workplace," with co-author Tom DeMarco, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Software Engineering,'' IEEE Computer Society, 1985.
References
1949 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Brown University alumni
American software engineers |
62841103 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavae%20Malepeai | Vavae Malepeai | Vavae Malepeai (born c. 1999) is an American football running back. Malepeai has played for the USC Trojans since 2017.
College career
Despite having his season shortened due to injury, he led the 2019 USC Trojans football team with 503 rushing yards in eight games. His 2019 season was cut short by a knee injury. Malepeai later revealed that he had injured the knee in before the season began and played hurt, hoping he could fight through it.
Personal life
A native of Hawaii, his three uncles, Silila, Tasi and Pulou Malepeai, all played college football for the Oregon Ducks.
References
Living people
1990s births
Year of birth uncertain
American football running backs
USC Trojans football players |
1154206 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ffdshow | Ffdshow | ffdshow is an open-source unmaintained codec library that is mainly used for decoding of video in the MPEG-4 ASP (e.g. encoded with DivX or Xvid) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video formats, but it supports numerous other video and audio formats as well. It is free software released under GNU General Public License 2.0, runs on Windows, and is implemented as a Video for Windows (VFW) codec and a DirectShow filter.
Installation and configuration
ffdshow does not include a media player or container parsers. Instead, after installation of ffdshow, compatible DirectShow or VFW media players such as Media Player Classic, Winamp, and Windows Media Player will use the ffdshow decoder automatically, thus avoiding the need to install separate codecs for the various formats supported by ffdshow. The user configures ffdshow's audio and video settings by launching the ffdshow video decoder configuration program independently of any media player.
For playing transport stream files such as AVC(H.264) an additional mediasplitter should also be installed. There are several free mediasplitters available such as the LAV Filters and Haali Media Splitter.
Format and filter support
ffdshow can be configured to display subtitles, to enable or disable various built-in codecs, to grab screenshots, to enable keyboard control, and to enhance movies with increased resolution, sharpness, and many other post-processing video filters. It has the ability to manipulate audio with effects like an equalizer, a Dolby decoder, reverb, Winamp DSP plugins, and more. Some of the postprocessing is borrowed from the MPlayer project and AviSynth filters.
ffdshow uses the libavcodec library and several other free, open source software packages to decode video in most common formats, such as:
MPEG-4 Part 2 (including video encoded with Xvid, 3ivx, and all versions of DivX).
Flash Video, H.263 and VP6 (used by sites such as YouTube).
H.264/AVC, Theora, WMV as well as numerous others.
ffdshow also decodes audio, such as:
MP3,
AAC,
Dolby AC3,
WMA
FLAC, and
Vorbis formats, among others.
The post-processing video filters of ffdshow can be used in video editors such as VirtualDub or AviSynth, by configuring the VFW settings. In these editors, ffdshow can also be used to encode MPEG-4 video compatible with Xvid, DivX, or x264 codecs, as well as lossless video and a few other formats supported by libavcodec.
History
The first versions of ffdshow were published in May 2002, as an alternative to the DivX ;-) 3.11 and DivX 5.02 (which came bundled with Gator) decoders of the time, and as a way to combine the speed and quality of MPlayer with popular Windows video players. It continues to support more formats, new and old, as FFmpeg developers add support for them.
The main developer was Milan Cutka. When he stopped updating the project in 2006, new maintainers opened the ffdshow tryouts as a fork, where bug-fixes, stability fixes, new features, and codec updates continued. Development of ffdshow tryouts was discontinued in 2012 with users recommended to use LAV Filters instead.
See also
Comparison of video player software
Open source codecs and containers
References
External links
LAV Filters, a newer DirectShow codec set based on ffmpeg
Free codecs
Free software primarily written in assembly language
Free software programmed in C
Free software programmed in C++
Video codecs
Windows-only free software |
61813801 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986%20Troy%20State%20Trojans%20football%20team | 1986 Troy State Trojans football team | The 1986 Troy State Trojans football team represented Troy State University during the 1986 NCAA Division II football season. The Trojans played their home games at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Alabama. The 1986 team was led by coach Rick Rhoades. The team finished the season with a 10–2 record and made it to the NCAA Division II Playoff Semifinals. The Trojans defeated Virginia Union 31-7 in the Quarterfinals before falling to South Dakota 28-42 in the Semifinals.
Schedule
Schedule Source:
References
Troy State
Troy Trojans football seasons
Gulf South Conference football champion seasons
Troy State Trojans football |
3529897 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaypee%20Institute%20of%20Information%20Technology | Jaypee Institute of Information Technology | Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT) is a private deemed-to-be-university, situated in Noida, India.
History
The institute was founded in 2001 by Jaypee Group and commenced its operation in the start of academic year in July 2001. Initially it was affiliated to the state university Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat and started offering only diploma courses. By 1 November 2004, it was declared as a Deemed University by UGC.
JIIT, Noida is located in the corporate and housing hub at sector-62, Noida. The sector-128 campus is an extension to the main campus.
It commenced operations from the start of the academic session in August 2009.
Chancellor and academic head
Jaiprakash Gaur was the founder chairman and chancellor of the institute followed by his son Manoj Gaur, who served as the 2nd chancellor of the institute. He was succeeded by Dr. Yajulu Medury, who is serving as the current chancellor of the institute. Dr. J. P. Gupta was the institute founder director and first vice-chancellor. He was followed by Dr. S. C. Saxena and he is serving as the current vice-chancellor (acting) from 1 July 2011, onward. Dr. Shankar Lall Maskara was the first Dean of Academic & Research of Sector-62 campus; he was followed by Dr. Krishna Gopal.
Campus
The institute has two campuses in Noida, the main campus located in sector 62, and the other located in sector 128.
Academics
Institute offers undergraduate programs leading to a Bachelor of Technology degree and postgraduate program leading to a Master of Technology degree. A five-year dual degree program and doctorate research programs are also offered. The institute also offers BBA & MBA programs under its constituent Jaypee Business School(JBS) which offers specialization in various major and minor subjects like digital marketing, business analytics etc.
All undergraduate and postgraduate programs of the institute have been accredited by the National Board of Accreditation of AICTE.
Controversies
In 2010, the Government of India decided to derecognise 44 universities including JIIT. However, this matter is still pending. In its recent judgement the Supreme Court of India directed the University Grants Commission to conduct a fresh physical verification of infrastructure and faculty strength of deemed universities, which were black-listed by the Tandon Committee. However, in early 2017, JIIT regained its deemed university status and is now NAAC accredited. JIIT received approval by AICTE in 2018.
Rankings
The university was ranked in the 101-150 band among universities in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2020, in the 151–200 band overall and 96 in the engineering ranking.
Notable alumni
Kriti Sanon, actress, model
Siddharth Batra, computer scientist
Sakshi Malik (actress), Sakshi Malik is an Indian actress, fitness influencer and model, known for her role in the film Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and its associated song, "Bom Diggy Diggy".
See also
Jaypee University of Information Technology
Jaypee University of Engineering & Technology
References
External links
JIIT official webpage
Information technology institutes
Private universities in Uttar Pradesh
Deemed universities in Uttar Pradesh
Engineering colleges in Noida
Private engineering colleges in Uttar Pradesh
Jaypee Group
Educational institutions established in 2001
2001 establishments in Uttar Pradesh |
36754915 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla | Mozilla | Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, with only minor exceptions. The community is supported institutionally by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and its tax-paying subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.
Mozilla's current products include the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client (now through a subsidiary), Bugzilla bug tracking system, Gecko layout engine, Pocket "read-it-later-online" service, and others.
History
On January 23, 1998, Netscape made two announcements: first, that Netscape Communicator would be free; second, that the source code would also be free. One day later Jamie Zawinski, from Netscape, registered . The project took its name, "Mozilla", after the original code name of the Netscape Navigator browser—a portmanteau of "Mosaic and Godzilla", and used to coordinate the development of the Mozilla Application Suite, the free software version of Netscape's internet software, Netscape Communicator. Jamie Zawinski says he came up with the name "Mozilla" at a Netscape staff meeting. A small group of Netscape employees were tasked with coordination of the new community.
Originally, Mozilla aimed to be a technology provider for companies, such as Netscape, who would commercialize their free software code. When AOL (Netscape's parent company) greatly reduced its involvement with Mozilla in July 2003, the Mozilla Foundation was designated the legal steward of the project. Soon after, Mozilla deprecated the Mozilla Suite in favor of creating independent applications for each function, primarily the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client, and moved to supply them directly to the public.
Mozilla's activities have since expanded to include Firefox on mobile platforms (primarily Android), a mobile OS called Firefox OS (since cancelled), a web-based identity system called Mozilla Persona and a marketplace for HTML5 applications.
In a report released in November 2012, Mozilla reported that their total revenue for 2011 was $163 million, which was up 33% from $123 million in 2010. Mozilla noted that roughly 85% of their revenue comes from their contract with Google.
At the end of 2013, Mozilla announced a deal with Cisco Systems whereby Firefox would download and use a Cisco-provided binary build of an open-source codec to play the proprietary H.264 video format. As part of the deal, Cisco would pay any patent licensing fees associated with the binaries that it distributes. Mozilla's CTO, Brendan Eich, acknowledged that this is "not a complete solution" and isn't "perfect". An employee in Mozilla's video formats team, writing in an unofficial capacity, justified it by the need to maintain their large user base, which would be necessary for future battles for truly free video formats.
In December 2013, Mozilla announced funding for the development of paid games through its Game Creator Challenge. However, even those games that may be released under a non-free software or free software license must be made with open web technologies and Javascript as per the work criteria outlined in the announcement.
In January 2017 the company rebranded away from its dinosaur symbol in favor of a logo that includes a "://" character sequence from a URL, with the revamped logo: "moz://a".
In 2020 Mozilla announced it would be cutting off 25% of its staff to reduce costs. Firefox has fallen from 30% market share to 4% in 10 years. Despite this, executive pay increased 400%, with Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s top executive, being paid $2.4m in 2018. In December 2020, Mozilla closed its Mountain View office.
Values
Mozilla Manifesto
The Mozilla Manifesto outlines Mozilla's goals and principles. It asserts Mozilla's commitment to the internet, saying: "The open, global internet is the most powerful communication and collaboration resource we have ever seen. It embodies some of our deepest hopes for human progress." It then outlines what Mozilla sees as its place in the development of the internet, stating "The Mozilla project uses a community-based approach to create world-class open source software and to develop new types of collaborative activities". And finally, it lays out their ten principles:
The internet is an integral part of modern life—a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment, and society as a whole.
The internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
The internet must enrich the lives of individual human beings.
Individuals’ security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.
Individuals must have the ability to shape the internet and their own experiences on it.
The effectiveness of the internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation, and decentralized participation worldwide.
Free and open source software promotes the development of the internet as a public resource.
Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability, and trust.
Commercial involvement in the development of the internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial profit and public benefit is critical.
Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention, and commitment.
Pledge
According to the Mozilla Foundation:
Software
Firefox
Firefox is a family of software products developed by Mozilla, with the Firefox browser as the flagship product.
Firefox browser
Firefox browser, or simply Firefox, is a web browser and Mozilla's flagship software product. It is available in both desktop and mobile versions. Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine to render web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards. , Firefox had approximately 10-11% of worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it the 4th most-used web browser.
Firefox began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla codebase by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt and Blake Ross. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser. To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suite's software bloat, they created a stand-alone browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite.
Firefox was originally named Phoenix but the name was changed so as to avoid trademark conflicts with Phoenix Technologies. The initially-announced replacement, Firebird, provoked objections from the Firebird project community. The current name, Firefox, was chosen on February 9, 2004.
It has been announced that Mozilla is going to launch a premium version of the Firefox browser by October 2019. The company's CEO, Chris Beard, has been quoted by The Next Web to say that "there is no plan to charge money for things that are now free. So we will roll out a subscription service and offer a premium level."
Firefox for mobile
Firefox for mobile (codenamed Fennec) is the build of the Mozilla Firefox web browser for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Initially available on multiple platforms, it is now available in two versions: Firefox for Android and Firefox for iOS. Firefox for Android runs on the Android mobile operating system and uses the same Gecko layout engine as Mozilla Firefox; for example, version 1.0 used the same engine as Firefox 3.6, and the following release, 4.0, shared core code with Firefox 4.0. Firefox for iOS, which runs on the iOS mobile operating system, does not use the Gecko Layout Engine because of Apple's policy that all iOS apps that browse the web must use the built-in iOS WebKit rendering engine. Both version include features like HTML5 support, Firefox Sync, private browsing, web tracking protection, and tabbed browsing, and Firefox for Android also includes support for add-ons.
Firefox Focus
Firefox Focus is a free and open-source privacy-focused mobile browser for Android and iOS. Initially released in 2015 as only a tracker-blocking application for iOS, it has since been developed into a full mobile browser for both iOS and Android.
Firefox Lockwise
Firefox Lockwise is a password manager offered by Mozilla. On desktop, it is a built-in feature of the Firefox browser. On mobile, it is offered as a standalone app that can be set as the device's default password manager.
Firefox Monitor
Firefox Monitor is an online service that informs users if their email address and passwords have been leaked in data breaches.
Firefox Send
Firefox Send was an online encrypted file-transfer service offered by Mozilla. In September 2020, Mozilla announced that Firefox Send will be decommissioned and will no longer be part of the product lineup.
Mozilla VPN
Mozilla VPN, formerly Firefox Private Network, is a subscription-based VPN and a free privacy extension.
Firefox Private Relay
Firefox Private Relay provides users with disposable email addresses that can be used to combat spam (by hiding the user's real email address) and manage email subscriptions by categorizing them based on the party a particular address was given to.
Firefox Reality
In September 2018, Mozilla announced that its VR version was ready for consumers to download. Called Firefox Reality, the browser was built entirely for virtual reality. It is currently available on the Oculus.
In January 2019, HTC also announced its partnership with Mozilla. Under the partnership, the Firefox Reality web browser has been made available on the Vive headsets.
Firefox OS
Firefox OS (project name: Boot to Gecko also known as B2G) is a free software operating system that was developed by Mozilla to support HTML5 apps written using "open Web" technologies rather than platform-specific native APIs. The concept behind Firefox OS is that all user-accessible software will be HTML5 applications, that use Open Web APIs to access the phone's hardware directly via JavaScript.
Some devices using this OS include Alcatel One Touch Fire, ZTE Open, and LG Fireweb. Mozilla announced the end of Firefox OS development in December 2015.
A fork of B2G, KaiOS, has continued development and ships with numerous low-cost devices.
Pocket
Pocket is a mobile application and web service for managing a reading list of articles from the Internet. It was announced that it would be acquired by the Mozilla Corporation, the commercial arm of Mozilla's non-profit development group, on February 27, 2017. Originally designed only for desktop browsers, it is now available for macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Kobo eReaders, and web browsers.
Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a free software, cross-platform email and news client developed by the volunteers of the Mozilla Community.
On July 16, 2012, Mitchell Baker announced that Mozilla's leadership had come to the conclusion that ongoing stability was the most important thing for Thunderbird and that innovation in Thunderbird was no longer a priority for Mozilla. In that update, Baker also suggested that Mozilla had provided a pathway for its community to innovate around Thunderbird if the community chooses.
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey (formerly the Mozilla Application Suite) is a free and open-source cross-platform suite of Internet software components including a web browser component, a client for sending and receiving email and Usenet newsgroup messages, an HTML editor (Mozilla Composer) and the ChatZilla IRC client.
On March 10, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it would not release any official versions of Mozilla Application Suite beyond 1.7.x, since it had now focused on the stand-alone applications Firefox and Thunderbird. SeaMonkey is now maintained by the SeaMonkey Council, which has trademarked the SeaMonkey name with help from the Mozilla Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation provides project hosting for the SeaMonkey developers.
Bugzilla
Bugzilla is a web-based general-purpose bug tracking system, which was released as free software by Netscape Communications in 1998 along with the rest of the Mozilla codebase, and is currently stewarded by Mozilla. It has been adopted by a variety of organizations for use as a bug tracking system for both free and open-source software and proprietary projects and products, including the Mozilla Foundation, the Linux kernel, KDE, Red Hat, Eclipse and LibreOffice.
Components
NSS
Network Security Services (NSS) comprises a set of libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications. NSS provides a complete free software implementation of crypto libraries supporting SSL and S/MIME. NSS is licensed under the GPL-compatible Mozilla Public License 2.0.
AOL, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems/Oracle Corporation, Google and other companies and individual contributors have co-developed NSS and it is used in a wide range of non-Mozilla products including Evolution, Pidgin, and LibreOffice.
SpiderMonkey
SpiderMonkey is the original JavaScript engine developed by Brendan Eich when he invented JavaScript in 1995 as a developer at Netscape. It became part of the Mozilla product family when Mozilla inherited Netscape's code-base in 1998. In 2011, Eich transferred the nominal ownership of the SpiderMonkey code and project to Dave Mandelin.
SpiderMonkey is a cross-platform engine written in C++ which implements ECMAScript, a standard developed from JavaScript. It comprises an interpreter, several just-in-time compilers, a decompiler and a garbage collector. Products which embed SpiderMonkey include Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, and many non-Mozilla applications.
Rhino
Rhino is a free software JavaScript engine managed by the Mozilla Foundation. It is developed entirely in Java. Rhino converts JavaScript scripts into Java classes. Rhino works in both compiled and interpreted mode.
Gecko
Gecko is a layout engine that supports web pages written using HTML, SVG, and MathML. Gecko is written in C++ and uses NSPR for platform independence. Its source code is licensed under the Mozilla Public License.
Firefox uses Gecko both for rendering web pages and for rendering its user interface. Gecko is also used by Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, and many non-Mozilla applications.
Rust
Rust is a compiled programming language being developed by Mozilla Research. It is designed for safety, concurrency, and performance. Rust is intended for creating large and complex software which needs to be both safe against exploits and fast.
Rust is being used in an experimental layout engine, Servo, which was developed by Mozilla and Samsung. Servo is not used in any consumer-oriented browsers yet. However, the Servo project developers plan for parts of the Servo source code to be merged into Gecko, and Firefox, incrementally.
XULRunner
XULRunner is a software platform and technology experiment by Mozilla, that allows applications built with the same technologies used by Firefox extensions (XPCOM, Javascript, HTML, CSS, XUL) to be run natively as desktop applications, without requiring Firefox to be installed on the user's machine. XULRunner binaries are available for the Windows, Linux and OS X operating systems, allowing such applications to be effectively cross-platform.
pdf.js
Pdf.js is a library developed by Mozilla that allows in-browser rendering of pdf documents using HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript. It is included by default in Firefox, allowing the browser to render pdf documents without requiring an external plugin; and it is available separately as an extension named "PDF Viewer" for Firefox for Android, SeaMonkey, and the Firefox versions which don't include it built-in. It can also be included as part of a website's scripts, to allow pdf rendering for any browser that implements the required HTML5 features and can run JavaScript.
Shumway
Shumway is an free software replacement for the Adobe Flash Player, developed by Mozilla since 2012, using open web technologies as a replacement for Flash technologies. It uses Javascript and HTML5 Canvas elements to render Flash and execute Actionscript. It is included by default in Firefox Nightly and can be installed as an extension for any recent version of Firefox. The current implementation is limited in its capabilities to render Flash content outside simple projects.
Servo
Servo is a browser engine being developed for application and embedded use. In August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, due to lack of funds and organization restructuring, Mozilla laid off most of the Servo development team. After the team was disbanded Servo became part of the Linux Foundation, where development currently continues.
SOPS: Secrets OPerationS
sops is an editor of encrypted files that supports YAML, JSON, ENV, INI and BINARY formats and encrypts with AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault, age, and PGP.
Other activities
Mozilla VR
Mozilla VR is a team focused on bringing virtual reality (VR) tools, specifications, and standards to the open Web. Mozilla VR maintains A-Frame (VR), a web framework for building VR experiences, and works on advancing WebVR support within web browsers.
On April 26, 2018, the first experiment from their Social Mixed Reality efforts was released; Hubs, a multi-user virtual space in WebVR.
Mozilla Persona
Mozilla Persona was a secure, cross-browser website authentication mechanism which allowed a user to use a single username and password (or other authentication method) to log into multiple sites. Mozilla Persona shut down on November 30, 2016.
Mozilla Location Service
This free software crowdsourced geolocation service was started by Mozilla in 2013 and offers a free API.
Webmaker
Mozilla Webmaker is Mozilla's educational initiative, and Webmaker's goal is to "help millions of people move from using the web to making the web." As part of Mozilla's non-profit mission, Webmaker aims "to help the world increase their understanding of the web, take greater control of their online lives, and create a more web literate planet."
MDN Web Docs
Mozilla maintains a comprehensive developer documentation website called the MDN Web Docs which contains information about web technologies including HTML, CSS, SVG, JavaScript, as well as Mozilla-specific information. In addition, Mozilla publishes a large number of videos about web technologies and the development of Mozilla projects on the Air Mozilla website.
Common Voice
In July 2017, Mozilla launched the project Common Voice to help make voice recognition open to everyone. Visitors to the website can donate their voice to help build a free software voice recognition engine that anyone can use to make apps for devices and the web that make use of voice recognition. The website allows visitors to read a sentence to help the machine system learn how real people speak, as well as validate the read sentences of other people.
Mozilla publishes Common Voice data sets under a CC-0 license.
IRL – Online Life Is Real Life
On June 26, 2017, Mozilla launched IRL – Online Life Is Real Life to explore popular stories from the web that deal with issues of the internet that affect society as a whole.
Controversies
Eich CEO promotion
In 2008, Brendan Eich donated US$1,000 in support of California's Proposition 8, a California ballot proposition and state constitutional amendment in opposition to same-sex marriage. Eich's donation eventually became public knowledge in 2012, while he was Mozilla’s chief technical officer, leading to angry responses on Twitter—including the use of the hashtag "#wontworkwithbigots".
Controversy later re-emerged in 2014, following the announcement of Eich's appointment as CEO of Mozilla. U.S. companies OkCupid and CREDO Mobile notably objected to his appointment, with the former asking its users to boycott the browser, while Credo amassed 50,000 signatures for a petition that called for Eich's resignation.
Due to the controversy, Eich voluntarily stepped down on April 3, 2014, and Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman of Mozilla Corporation, posted a statement on the Mozilla blog: "We didn't move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality."
Push Notifications for Mozilla Blog without user consent
In July, 2020 Mozilla forced push notifications, an advertisement for its own blog post about Facebook and Mozilla's #StopHateForProfit campaign. These notifications were sent without user consent and faced a backlash by Firefox users.
Mozilla and Meta (Facebook) partnership
In February, 2022, Mozilla and Meta partnered to propose a privacy-preserving advertising technology. This faced a backlash on the internet because Mozilla partnered with the same company they were running a campaign against 2 years ago and given Meta's reputation, Mozilla was criticized for collaborating with them.
Community
The Mozilla Community consists of over 40,000 active contributors from across the globe. It includes both paid employees and volunteers who work towards the goals set forth in the Mozilla Manifesto. Many of the sub-communities in Mozilla have formed around localization efforts for Mozilla Firefox, and the Mozilla web properties.
Local communities
There are a number of sub-communities that exist based on their geographical locations, where contributors near each other work together on particular activities, such as localization, marketing, PR, and user support.
In 2017, Mozilla created a Wireless Innovation for Network Security (WINS) challenge that awarded a total of $2 million in prize money to innovators who used its decentralized design to create wireless solutions for post-natural disaster internet access. This challenge also envisioned connecting communities that lacked internet access.
Mozilla Reps
The Mozilla Reps program is a volunteer-based program, which allows volunteers to become official representatives of Mozilla. Volunteers are required to be 18 years or older in order to participate in the program. Activities under the program include recruitment for contributors, workshops, and attending Mozilla summits.
Conferences and events
Mozilla Festival
The Mozilla Festival (MozFest) is a unique hybrid: part art, tech, and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world. Journalists, coders, filmmakers, designers, educators, gamers, makers, youth, and anyone else, from all over the world, are encouraged to attend, with nearly 10,000 participating virtually in 2021 from more than 87 countries, working together at the intersection of human rights, climate justice, and technology, specifically trustworthy artificial intelligence.
The event revolves around key issues based on the chosen theme for that year's festival. MozFest unfolds over the span of two weeks, with more than 500 interactive sessions, films, talks, round-tables, hack-a-thons, exhibits, and socials. Topics range from privacy best practices, developing solutions to online misinformation and harassment, building free software tools, supporting Trustworthy AI innovations, and more. The titles of the festival revolve around the main theme, freedom, and the Web.
MozCamps
MozCamps are multi-day gatherings aimed at growing the contributor network by providing lectures, workshops, and breakout sessions led by Mozilla staff and volunteers. While these camps have been held in multiple locations globally in the past, none have occurred since 2014.
Mozilla Summit
Mozilla Summit was a global event with active contributors and Mozilla employees who collaborated to develop a shared understanding of Mozilla's mission together. Over 2,000 people representing 90 countries and 114 languages gathered in Santa Clara, Toronto, and Brussels in 2013. Mozilla had its last Summit in 2013 and replaced them with smaller all-hands where both employees and volunteers come together to collaborate.
See also
-zilla (suffix)
Mozilla (mascot)
The Book of Mozilla
Timeline of web browsers
W3C
References
External links
, including the Mozilla Manifesto
Mozilla Wiki
Mozilla Mercurial Repository
1998 establishments in the United States
Netscape
Projects established in 1998 |
28494682 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church%20of%20Scientology%20editing%20on%20Wikipedia | Church of Scientology editing on Wikipedia | A series of incidents in 2009 led to Church of Scientology-owned networks being blocked from making edits to Wikipedia articles relating to Scientology. The Church of Scientology has long had a controversial history on the Internet and had initiated campaigns to manipulate material and remove information critical of itself from the web. From early in Wikipedia's history, conflict arose within the topic of Scientology on the website. Disputes began in earnest in 2005, with users disagreeing about whether or not to describe Scientology as an abusive cult or religion. By 2006, disagreements concerning the topic of Scientology on Wikipedia had grown more specific. Wikipedia user and Scientology critic David Gerard commented to The Daily Telegraph in 2006 that some articles were neutral due to a requirement to reference stated facts.
Revelations from WikiScanner made public the nature of edits on Wikipedia which were able to be traced directly back to Church of Scientology-controlled computers. CBS News and The Independent reported that edits by the Church of Scientology were made in attempts to remove criticism from the main article on the topic. The Times and Forbes noted that Scientologist computers were used to remove links between the Church of Scientology and a former anti-cult organization, since taken over by Scientology, the Cult Awareness Network. reported that WikiScanner revealed that computers of the Church of Scientology were used to promote Scientology's critical view of psychiatry, including adding links to the Scientology-founded Citizens Commission on Human Rights and to websites of other groups affiliated with Scientology.
In January 2009, a case involving Scientology was brought before Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee. Wikipedia administrators presented evidence during the case that Church of Scientology-controlled computers were used to promote the organization, using multiple user accounts. One user, going by the pseudonym "COFS", admitted this pattern of editing and stated the edits from Scientology computers would continue. In May 2009, the Arbitration Committee decided to restrict editing from IP addresses belonging to the Church of Scientology to prevent biased edits. The decision meant that Church of Scientology-controlled IP addresses received the same blockable status as open proxies on the site. A large number of Scientology critics were banned as well. The committee concluded that both sides had "gamed policy" and resorted to "battlefield tactics", with articles on living persons being the "worst casualties" of edits.
Arbitration Committee member Roger Davies wrote the majority of the decision, and commented to The New York Times that due to the controversial nature of the case, the decision was crafted so as not to focus directly upon any particular individual. Wikipedia media contact Dan Rosenthal emphasized in a statement to ABC News that it was generally accepted procedure to ban users that had violated policy intended to prevent them from promoting propaganda. Wikimedia Foundation spokesman and head of communications Jay Walsh said to Bloomberg BusinessWeek that the arbitration decision was intended to help restore Scientology-related articles to an acceptable state on the site. Wikimedia Germany spokesperson Catrin Schoneville stated to Computerwoche that the decision impacted the English Wikipedia, and noted it was unclear whether a similar ruling might be applied to the German Wikipedia. Statements from Church of Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw labelled the arbitration ruling as a routine matter and maintained there were still "gross inaccuracies" on the Scientology article. In a statement to CNN, Pouw denied the presence of an organized campaign by the Church of Scientology to manipulate Wikipedia. Scientology representative Tommy Davis emphasized to the St. Petersburg Times that users critical of the organization were also banned, and similarly denied that Church of Scientology leadership arranged a campaign to manipulate entries on Wikipedia.
Background
The Church of Scientology has a controversial history on the Internet. It has been criticized for attempting to restrict freedom of speech on the Internet; this conflict has come to be known as Scientology versus the Internet, or Scientology v. The Net. The organization has attempted to manipulate and maintain power over its public image on the web. Early lawsuits involved in this dispute have included Religious Technology Center v. Netcom, as well as Religious Technology Center v. F.A.C.T. Net. Writing in his book, Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age, author Mike Godwin noted, "In one of the earliest widely publicized sets of cases involving intellectual property on the Net, the Church of Scientology has been exploring the uses of copyright and trade secret law when it comes to silencing its critics, many of them former members of the church." The Guardian noted, "According to insiders and security experts, Scientologists have been conducting concerted campaigns for more than a decade to remove online information critical of the organisation." In response to criticism over its actions on the Internet, Scientology has stated its efforts are aimed at defending the copyrights over its secretive spiritual documents.
Legal cases have involved a newsgroup focused on the topic called alt.religion.scientology, which revealed information from advanced Scientology methods including the Operating Thetan (OT) levels that describe the story of Xenu. In 1995, attorneys representing the Church of Scientology tried to get alt.religion.scientology removed from Usenet. This maneuver had the opposite impact for Scientology, serving to drive up popularity of alt.religion.scientology and resulting in a "declaration of war" from the hacker organization Cult of the Dead Cow. Professor David S. Touretzky of the computer science department and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a critic of Scientology and proponent of freedom of speech on the Internet. He noted the Scientology organization was, "trying to threaten freedom of speech on the Internet by making service providers legally responsible for their customers' speech." Wendy M. Grossman, journalist and founder of The Skeptic, observed of Scientology's attempts to suppress information on the Internet:
History
Early conflict
Conflict within the topic of Scientology on Wikipedia arose early on from the website's beginnings. Author Jonathan Zittrain noted in The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It, his 2009 book published by Yale University Press, that "as Wikipedia grew it began to attract editors who had never crossed paths before, and who disagreed on articles they were simultaneously editing. One person would say that Scientology was a 'cult', the other would change that back to 'religion,' and the first would revert it back again." In a 2005 article about Wikipedia for The Guardian, Charles Arthur noted individuals debated online, "whether Scientology should be classed as a cult", and he compared the "cultism" of Scientology to that of Wikipedia itself. ABC News noted in a 2009 article, "Wikipedia disputes about Scientology have gone on since 2005."
In 2006, conflict on Wikipedia within the topic of Scientology was drawn out over specific disagreements. Journalist Alan Bjerga of McClatchy Newspapers reported in August 2006, "Wayne Saewyc, a Wikipedia spokesman, said debates on controversial topics can become incredibly time-consuming and sometimes maddening. In the entry covering Scientology, for example, contributors argued for nine months over whether the Scientologist method of childbirth should be called 'silent birth' or 'quiet birth. In an October 2006 article about Wikipedia, Paul Vallely of The Independent commented that, "Some pages seem to have been taken over by fanatics and special interest groups (try the Scientology page)." Wikipedia user and Scientology critic David Gerard is cited in The Daily Telegraph in October 2006 about the state of Scientology articles on the site as believing that "the Wikipedia entry is the most balanced and informative account to be found anywhere on the web." Gerard commented on "NPOV" (neutral point of view) in the topic, "This is a good example of why NPOV is one of the most revolutionary things about Wikipedia. On the web you'll find a lot of Church of Scientology sites, and a lot of critics' sites, which are generally very bitter. On Wikipedia you have to be neutral, and you have to be able to reference your facts."
WikiScanner revelations
The development of the WikiScanner software by Virgil Griffith in 2007 revealed changes made to Wikipedia articles by Scientology organization computers. CBS News reported, "Many of the edits are predictably self-interested: PCs in Scientology officialdom were used to remove criticism in the church's Wikipedia entry." The Independent noted, "Computers with IP addresses traced to the Church of Scientology were used to expunge critical paragraphs about the cult's world-wide operations." The Times reported that a computer operated by the Church of Scientology was used to manipulate information in the Wikipedia article about the Cult Awareness Network, "A computer linked to the Church of Scientology's network was used to delete references to links between it and a group dubbed the 'Cult Awareness Network. Forbes noted, "Scientology officials appear to have removed critical comments from an anti-cult organization."
Der Spiegel reported in more depth on some of the edits revealed by WikiScanner to have been made on Wikipedia by computers associated with the Church of Scientology. From 2003 to 2007, 170 edits were made, a large proportion of which focused on Scientologist views critical of psychiatry. For example, the article "Kurt Cobain" was edited by a Scientologist in order to include a link to the Scientology-founded "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" (CCHR), putting forth the notion that "the singer's childhood Ritalin prescription led him to suicide". Multiple edits involved adding links to webpages of organizations affiliated with Scientology.
Reporting for Slate, journalist Michael Agger observed that an edit by a Scientology-associated IP address to a Scientology-related article on Wikipedia does not necessarily indicate such an edit was made by an employee of the organization. Virgil Griffith explained, "Technically, we don't know if it came from an agent of that company. However, we do know that edit came from someone with access to their network. If the edit occurred during working hours, then we can reasonably assume that the person is either an employee of that company or a guest that was allowed access to their network."
Project Chanology
After the Scientology organization tried to remove a promotional film of Scientology featuring celebrity member Tom Cruise from the Internet, a group of web-based activists known as "Anonymous" focused efforts against Scientology. Anonymous disrupted Scientology websites and spread anti-Scientologist materials online. In July 2008, Messenger Newspapers noted, "A war between internet collective Anonymous and the Church of Scientology" had been "fought out largely on the battlefields of YouTube, Wikipedia and other websites", before emerging to become a movement with protests taking place in front of Scientology buildings. Known as Project Chanology, the movement was "Organised from a Wikipedia-style website (editable by anyone) and through anonymous internet chat rooms". The New York Times noted that through its actions related to attempts to remove the Tom Cruise video from the Internet, the Church of Scientology became a victim of the Streisand effect – a phenomenon whereby attempts to suppress information on the Internet end up having the opposite impact.
Arbitration Committee ban
In January 2009, The Register reported on an ongoing case involving Scientology before Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee, "According to site administrators, several pro-Scientology accounts have been editing the site using Scientology-owned computers." The Arbitration Committee on Wikipedia is composed of a group of volunteers elected by the editing community to resolve especially difficult conflicts. During the arbitration case, the page about Scientology was modified by members of the organization. Scientology members had doctored entries in order to advertise for their cause. The Register noted that one of the Wikipedia users admitted he had edited from computers operated by the Scientology organization, "One of these pro-Scientology editors – who once used the handle 'COFS' – has admitted as much. And he vows to continue editing Scientology articles from Scientology computers." The Register quoted the "COFS" user as saying, "I am not going to leave voluntarily and I will continue to use a) my own computer, b) public computers, c) my wireless laptop, d) computers in the Church of Scientology and any station I please". The Guardian cited The Register, and noted, "The technology news website The Register alleges the church has an organised operation to challenge internet criticism."
In an effort to adhere to Wikipedia policy, Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee decided on May 28, 2009, to restrict editing from Scientology organization IP addresses in order to prevent self-serving edits by editors within Church of Scientology-administered networks. The decision accorded Scientology-controlled IP addresses the same blockable status as open proxies on the site. Ten members of the Arbitration Committee voted in favor of the ruling, thus preventing such users from editing existing articles or creating new articles on the site. Wikipedia previously frequently had banned individual users from the site, but not entire organizations. The arbitration decision came as the culmination of a "longstanding struggle" involving promoters of the organization and critics of its practices. ABC News noted the conflict was "one of the longest-running disputes in Wikipedia's history". The conflict involved over 400 articles within the topic of Scientology. It was the fourth such arbitration case before Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee on the topic of Scientology in the prior four years. The case was drawn out for six months, prior to the decision of the Arbitration Committee.
The committee ruled that the Scientology organization had a responsibility to "ensure appropriate use of its servers and equipment", and pointed to a conflict of interest involved with edits from Scientology-associated computers. The block on IP addresses includes those originating from the Church of Scientology's offices in Los Angeles, California; the organization additionally maintains headquarters in Clearwater, Florida.
News.com.au reported, "According to evidence found by Wikipedia, multiple users with known scientology IP addresses had been 'openly editing (Scientology-related articles) from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities'." Sky News noted that the ban on Scientology computers applies to "Any computer addresses 'owned or operated' by the Church or associates linked to it". Fox News Channel reported on the decision, "The encyclopedia's administrators found that Scientology computers had been repeatedly changing more than 400 pages related to the Church, deleting negative references and adding positive ones. The volume of changes was overwhelming administrators' ability to reverse them, hence the block." Fox News Channel described the decision by the Arbitration Committee to block Scientology-controlled IP addresses as "an unprecedented move"; The Guardian similarly noted, "whatever your feelings towards the world of Scientology, Wikipedia's decision to enact a blanket ban appears to be unprecedented." InfoWorld wrote that edits by the Scientology organization were motivated by, "a massive organized effort to make the CoS look good and/or counter the relentless public criticism that has shadowed the organization since the earliest days of the Net." Wired News reported that the ban on the Scientology organization was triggered by "repeated and deceptive editing of articles related to the controversial religion". The Los Angeles Times noted that the ban stemmed from "the church's self-serving wiki-revisionism". Der Spiegel noted that skeptics doubted the efficacy of the ban on the Scientology-controlled IP addresses, and commented on the likelihood of individuals creating multiple account names.
A "host of anti-Scientologist editors" were topic-banned as well by the Arbitration Committee. The committee noted that an "aggravating factor" had been "the apparent presence of notable critics of Scientology, from several Internet organizations, apparently editing under their own names and citing either their own or each other's self-published material." The committee concluded that both sides had "gamed policy" and resorted to "battlefield tactics" to create articles that were either "disparaging or complimentary", with articles on living persons being the "worst casualties".
On 7 January 2022 the rule of IP addresses owned by Scientology being blocked as if they were open proxies was lifted.
Wikimedia comments
Arbitration Committee member Roger Davies wrote the majority of the decision in the Scientology case. Davies commented in an interview with The New York Times, "It was obvious that this case was going to be controversial pretty much from the start. What we have done is we've really tried to make sure that we have not directed our fire at anyone in particular." He noted there was a recurring pattern of disputed editing on controversial topics, "One of the problems we keep bumping into is what I call core belief issues — politics, religion, nationalism. Fringe faiths, fringe nationalities."
Wikimedia Foundation spokesman and head of communications, Jay Walsh, stated the decision was focused on reducing hostility within the subject and getting articles back to an appropriate state. Walsh emphasized to Bloomberg BusinessWeek that edits which serve the interests of organizations are acceptable, but must be within the procedure of "adding valuable context" to articles. In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Walsh said, "This is about people reducing the hostility around the topic, and getting the articles back to a state where they make sense. I think the arbitration committee wants to send the message that Wikipedians have to be neutral on all accounts and all fronts. They don't take these situations lightly. They understand there's a perspective of: Are we censoring people or individuals? It's really about what can we do that's best for Wikipedia and the people who read it." When asked by Ross Reynolds of National Public Radio affiliate KUOW-FM why the arbitration decision included a "ban on IP addresses at the Church of Scientology", Walsh answered, "So the simple answer is that within looking at these computers and where these edits were coming from, the decision is that ultimately most of the edits within these ranges have been from single-user-accounts, people who have a single intention to change or move or in some cases remove information, which could be considered censorship, which is really something that doesn't work out well on Wikipedia. And this is an effort to kind of calm that effect, and to bring some neutrality and some quality back to these articles."
Wikipedia media contact, Dan Rosenthal, stated to ABC News, "Scientology is up there among the most controversial on Wikipedia. You can compare it to articles on abortion, the presidential election and the like and there's been nowhere near the level of bitterness and fighting." Rosenthal commented, "You could imply that there is a conflict of interest. Rather than two unrelated people getting together", promoters of the Scientology organization were "getting together, saying, 'Let's work together to make this a more pro-scientology article. Rosenthal noted that "it is standard practice to ban users found violating rules designed to keep people with an agenda from propagandizing." Rosenthal said that approximately 300 users are blocked or banned per day from Wikipedia in order to stop vandalism, or for violating regulations created to prevent propaganda. Catrin Schoneville, spokesperson for Wikimedia Germany, stated to Computerwoche that the decision impacted the English Wikipedia version, and it was unknown whether a similar decision in the future would be applied to the German Wikipedia site.
Scientology statements
Scientology spokeswoman, Karin Pouw, stated of the Wikipedia arbitration decision, "Do Scientologists care what has been posted on Wikipedia? Of course. Some of it has been very hateful and erroneous." Pouw commented, "We hope all this will result in more accurate and useful articles on Wikipedia." She characterized the Arbitration Committee decision as "a routine internal action by Wikipedia to clean up its editing process". Pouw emphasized, "More importantly is the fact that Wikipedia finally banned those who were engaged in unobjective and biased editing for the purposes of antagonism as opposed to providing accurate information." Pouw commented to ABC News, "People have conflicts on Wikipedia all the time, and it's obvious why — anybody can post." Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Pouw's statements, "[Pouw] says her organization regularly monitors the Internet for wrong information about its belief system and members. After this ruling, Pouw says there remain 'gross inaccuracies' on the Scientology article on Wikipedia that she hopes will eventually be corrected. But for the time being, her group's ability to do that have been weakened." In a statement to CNN, Pouw asserted "she is unaware of any coordinated effort to alter Wikipedia".
Tommy Davis, a representative of the Scientology organization, stated to the St. Petersburg Times that members of the organization were attempting to correct what they perceived as factual inaccuracies: "The story that's being missed is there were people who were doing nonstop attacks on the church and using Wikipedia to do it. Those people have been banned." Davis denied that Scientology leadership arranged a campaign to manipulate entries on Wikipedia. He asserted, "The church is huge ... Scientologists are going to say what they're going to say about their own religion."
Reception
Writing in the 2009 book Scientology, contributor Mikael Rothstein commented positively about the Wikipedia article on "Xenu", "The most sober and enlightening text about the Xenu myth is probably the anonymous article on Wikipedia". Writing about Scientology in her 2010 book Insiders' Guide to the Greater Tampa Bay Area, author Anne W. Anderson noted, "In May 2009, Wikipedia ... imposed a very rare ban on some computers that were repeatedly editing entries about Scientology." In an August 2009 article for Time, titled "A Brief History of Wikipedia", journalist Dan Fletcher noted, "In May, Wikipedia banned IP addresses owned by the Church of Scientology on the grounds that Scientologists were making edits that didn't suggest a 'neutral point of view' — the encyclopedia's golden rule."
Stephen Colbert discussed the arbitration decision on his comedy program The Colbert Report. Colbert commented, "Folks, I think this is the worst tragedy to befall Scientologists, since galactic overlord Xenu stacked billions of frozen people around volcanoes which he detonated with hydrogen bombs."
In an interview with ABC News, sociologist of the University of Alberta, Stephen A. Kent commented, "Historically, Scientology has tried to control what critics say about it. The Internet, however, has posed insurmountable problems regarding control and censorship and Wikipedia's action is just one of many disputes that have occurred when Internet users have pushed back. Scientology can't roll over and give up on this issue. It will continue to attempt to have its representation." Evgeny Morozov of Foreign Policy wrote a blog post critical of the arbitration decision, and stated, "I am no fan of Scientology, but I think that banning them from Wikipedia is going to be counterproductive. Unfortunately, it presents the Wikipedia admins/editors as a non-neutral group that opposes a particular set of ideas." In an August 2010 article in The Guardian, journalists Rachel Shabi and Jemima Kiss observed, "Editors can remain anonymous when changing content, but conflicts are passed to Wikipedia's arbitration committee. Scientology was a regular source of conflict until the committee blocked editing by the movement."
See also
List of Guardian's Office operations
Operation Clambake
Operation Freakout
Operation Snow White
Scieno Sitter
Scientology and the legal system
Scientology controversies
References
Further reading
External links
, Wikimedia Foundation head of communications, as guest on KUOW-FM to discuss the Scientology arbitration case — (kuow.org: listen in .mp3, program listing)
2009 controversies
Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia
Scientology and the Internet
Scientology and law
Scientology-related controversies |
22316712 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20Fast%20%26%20Furious%20characters | List of Fast & Furious characters | Fast & Furious is an American action film series centered on cars. The following is a list of characters from the film franchise:
Characters table
†During the production of Furious 7, Paul Walker died in a single-vehicle accident on November 30, 2013. As a result, his character Brian O'Conner was written out as retired. Walker's brothers, Caleb and Cody, were used among others as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes, and the film is dedicated to him.
#Joshua Coombes, Meeshua Garbett and Harry Hickles portray young versions of Deckard, Hattie and Owen, respectively in Hobbs & Shaw.
*Vinnie Bennett, Finn Cole, Cered, Ozuna, Azia Dinea Hale, Siena Agudong, Karson Kern, and Igby Rigney portray young versions of Dominic, Jakob, Leo, Santos, Letty, Mia, Vince and Jesse respectively in F9.
Main characters
Dominic Toretto
Dominic "Dom" Toretto appears in most of the films in the series. An elite street racer, auto mechanic and ex-convict, Dominic is the brother of Jakob and Mia, son of Jack, husband of Letty Ortiz, cousin of Tony and Fernando, uncle of Jack and his younger sister, and father of Brian Marcos.
In the first film The Fast and the Furious, Dom leads a double-life in Los Angeles with his sister Mia, his girlfriend Letty, best friend Vince, and teammates Leon and Jesse. During the day, he tunes performance vehicles out of the auto shop behind his family's grocery store (which is run by Mia). At night, Dom and his team participate in illegal street racing in and around downtown LA. When they're not racing or working in the garage, the team performs precision hijackings out of three black high-performance Honda Civics, targeting container semi-trucks on LA freeways transporting electronic merchandise valued at hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. LAPD police officer Brian O'Connor infiltrates the group while working undercover, using the alias of Brian Spilner and the guise of a new racer eager to participate in high-stakes matches. On his first night, he challenges Dom by buying into a race using the pink slip for his Mitsubishi Eclipse (later said to be valued at $80,000). Brian ultimately loses the race, and a subsequent run-in with Dom's rival Johnny Tran leads to the Eclipse's destruction. The result places Brian in debt to Dom for an equally capable vehicle that can run a quarter-mile in ten seconds. Over the following weeks and months, and much to the chagrin of Vince, Brian works closely with Dom and his team to restore a Toyota Supra in time to participate in Race Wars, a legal racing event held in the desert outside of LA that attracts hundreds of participants. Dom ultimately discovers Brian's identity when Brian is forced to expose himself to save Vince after their final daytime hijacking goes awry. Vince, having sustained physical trauma from the endeavor, is bleeding out, forcing Brian to call for medevac and announce himself as an LAPD officer. This deception infuriates Dom, who immediately departs with Mia, Leon and Letty. By the time Vince is loaded onto the medevac, Dom is speeding away in the last remaining Civic with the remnants of Dom's team. Brian catches up to Dom at his home in LA, Leon and Letty having already fled to avoid arrest. When Tran and his cousin Lance attempt a drive-by shooting on dirt bikes as revenge for an earlier dispute, Brian and Dom pursue them in separate cars. Dom, in his late father's 1970 Dodge Charger, manages to incapacitate Lance while Brian pursues Tran in his Supra and kills him after shooting him in the side, causing him to crash at high speed on his motorcycle. Dom then challenges Brian to a race, pitting the Charger vs. the Supra on a quarter-mile strip with a railroad crossing as the finish line. The two engage in the high-speed drag race ultimately against an oncoming train. Barely surviving the train, Dom immediately collides with a semi-truck pulling out of a side street causing the Charger to flip multiple times. Brian, rushing to his aid, understands Dom's plight and fulfilling his commitment to give Dom a ten-second car, hands over the keys to his Supra. Dom departs as the sound of police sirens approaches, leaving Brian to answer for his failure. In a post-credits scene, Dom is seen driving a Chevrolet Chevelle in Baja California, having eluded capture.
In The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift he makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film as an old friend of the now deceased Han.
In Fast & Furious, Dominic and Brian reunite in the wake of Letty's death to stop drug lord Arturo Braga.
In Fast Five, Dominic and Brian make a plot to steal all of drug kingpin Hernan Reyes' money in an attempt to buy their freedom. During a talk with Brian, Dominic recalls his happy childhood with his father and Mia. Dominic, Brian, and Mia recruit many of their allies for the heist, while at the same time trying to evade capture by the DSS agent Luke Hobbs and Rio police officer Elena Neves. Hobbs and Elena become allies to Dominic after his team saves them from Reyes's men. With the help of his team, Dominic's heist is successful, and goes into hiding with Mia and Brian and starts a relationship with Elena.
In Fast & Furious 6, Dominic lives with Elena. He is approached by Hobbs, who asks him to help take down Owen Shaw, whose second-in-command is revealed to be an amnesiac but still-alive Letty. With Elena's support, Dominic regroups with his team and tries to talk to Letty to remember him and her former friends. Through numerous actions, he eventually gains Letty's trust, and defeats Shaw. His group is given full pardons from their crimes, and they return to the United States. Elena becomes Hobbs's new partner so that Dominic can be with Letty and start anew. In a post credit scene, he would later get a call with a threatening message from a man related to Owen Shaw.
In Furious 7 he is seeking revenge on Owen Shaw's brother Deckard, who is revealed to have deliberately caused the crash that had killed Han in Tokyo Drift (thus leading to Dom's cameo in the third film) and also destroyed Dom's home. While he pursues Shaw he is recruited by mysterious government agent 'Mr Nobody' to rescue Ramsey, a hacker with a device known as 'God's Eye' able to locate anyone on Earth, who has been captured by Mose Jakande with the promise of help in finding Shaw after Ramsey is safe. Dom and his crew save Ramsey - who is revealed to be female much to the surprise of her rescuers. Shaw and Jakande ultimately team up to kill Dom and the crew but they are defeated after a lengthy and violent battle. After this Dom bids an emotional farewell to Brian, who is retiring from the fast-paced, dangerous life to be with his son and the pregnant again Mia.
In The Fate of the Furious, Dominic is on his honeymoon with Letty, when Cipher forces him to work for her and betray his friends and family by holding Elena hostage. He was also forced to help her steal the "God Eye" and all the equipment for her plan to start a war. On Cipher's plane he learns he and Elena had a son while they were in a relationship. After nearly losing the nuclear warheads to Letty and the team. He watches in horror as Cipher lets her right-hand and second-in-command, Connor Rhodes kill Elena. In the film it is later revealed that throughout he made a deal with Deckard Shaw's mother to have Deckard and Owen rescue his son from Cipher by helping Deckard fake his death. Once Deckard rescues his son, he turns on Cipher and kills Rhodes, avenging Elena's death before helping his team stop her plans. He makes peace with Deckard and names his son Brian after his friend and brother-in-law Brian O'Conner.
In F9, Dominic and his crew face another threat in the form of his estranged brother Jakob, an assassin who has allied himself with Cipher and is trying to cause harm to the family in order to get back at Dom for an unknown personal grudge he has against him.
Dominic is tough and street smart. Although he owned a red veilslide Mazda RX-7 used for street racing and a fleet of black Honda Civic (fifth generation) for his heists in the first film, he is more interested in the American muscle cars, owning a 900 hp Dodge Charger R/T he built with his father, of which he is especially proud. He also owned a Buick GNX, Pontiac Bonneville Convertible, Plymouth Road Runner, Dodge Challenger SRT8 and a Chevrolet Chevelle SS. Dominic Toretto is portrayed by Vin Diesel. Young Dominic Toretto is portrayed by Vincent Sinclair Diesel and Vinnie Bennett.
Brian O'Conner
Brian O'Conner appears in all of the first seven films in the series, except for the third film and Los Bandoleros. Brian is an elite street racer, auto mechanic, a former undercover cop for an LAPD-FBI task force and a former FBI agent, Mia's husband, father of Jack and a daughter.
During the events of The Fast and the Furious, Brian is undercover for an LAPD-FBI task force under the alias Brian Spilner. As part of his investigation into a string of hijackings that have resulted in millions of dollars in electronic merchandise being stolen, Brian is charged with infiltrating the Los Angeles street racing scene, as the evidence suggests the culprits are talented racers. His initial contact with Dom and his team goes poorly as Dom's best friend Vince antagonizes Brian into a fight, which leads to Dom banishing him from the store and garnering Brian the nickname "the buster" from the team. However, Brian re-engages them later that night when he lays the pink slip for his Mitsubishi Eclipse down as a wager in a high-stakes race near downtown LA. Dom accepts, but is unable to collect when an LAPD raid leads to the frantic dispersal of all the racers. Dom abandons his car in a parking garage, and is rescued by Brian from being captured by an LAPD patrol officer. Fleeing the police, the duo accidentally enter into the territory of Dom's rival, Johnny Tran, resulting in the destruction of Brian's Eclipse. Due to the earlier terms of the race, Dom holds Brian to his debt, but lets him into his inner-circle. Brian presents a totaled Toyota Supra as payment, proposing that if they restore it that it will meet Dom's demands. As they restore the car Brian becomes closer to both Dom and his sister Mia, whom he begins to date. Both his friendship to Dom and romance with Mia upset Dom's best friend Vince. Under pressure from his superiors with the LAPD and FBI, Brian presses Dom harder to understand where he gets the money to pay for such high-end upgrades to their vehicles. Dom implies that if Brian proves himself at a big upcoming racing event called Race Wars, then he'll reveal his secret. During the event, Dom and his crew depart in the middle of the night to hijack a semi truck. Brian reveals his identity to Mia and coerces information out of her to help Dom. The two of them subsequently pursue the crew near Thermal, and find them in the middle of a hijacking gone wrong. Vince, stuck on the truck and wounded by the armed truck driver, is rescued by Brian after Letty is incapacitated. Brian is then forced to reveal his identity to Dom as he calls for an emergency medevac to airlift Vince to safety. Infuriated, Dom leaves with Mia, Leon and Letty. Brian pursues them to the Toretto household, but Leon and Letty have already fled to avoid arrest. At that same time, Johnny Tran and his cousin Lance perform a drive-by shooting over an earlier dispute, prompting Brian and Dom to pursue them in separate cars. Dom disables Lance in his Dodge Charger while Brian kills Tran by shooting him in the side, causing him to fall off of his dirt bike at high speed. Dom then challenges Brian to a quarter-mile drag race on a stretch of road that has a railroad crossing as the finish line. The two finish in a tie, narrowly beating an oncoming train, but Dom immediately collides with a semi truck advancing from a side street, causing his vehicle to flip multiple times. Running to Dom's aid, Brian understands Dom's dilemma, and not wanting to send him back to prison, hands over the keys to his Supra so that Dom can escape capture by the police.
In a short film to bridge the events of The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian is shown to have surrendered his gun and badge at his home in LA, escaping as a SWAT team raids his house. He goes on the run in a red Dodge Stealth, earning money via street racing. Losing the Dodge when he's forced to abandon it after police officers recognize the vehicle, he replaces it with a used Nissan Skyline that he repairs and restores with money he earns from subsequent races. He ultimately ends up in Miami, setting the stage for the second film.
In the second film, he is living in Miami as a street racer, but gets caught by U.S. Customs agents. He is offered a deal to take part in a joint Customs/FBI operation in exchange for the cleansing of his criminal record. He and childhood friend Roman Pearce go undercover as street racers to track down the apprehend the ruthless drug lord, Carter Verone.
In the fourth film, after having his crimes pardoned, O'Conner becomes an FBI agent and is given the task of bringing down Arturo Braga (Ramon Campos), a known drug trafficker. O'Conner, as well as Toretto, both infiltrate Braga's crew. While Braga is eventually apprehended, Toretto is arrested and sentenced to prison as well, resulting in O'Conner, Mia, and members of Toretto's crew intercepting the prison bus to free Dominic from custody.
In the fifth film, O'Conner and Toretto get caught in a crossfire with corrupt businessman and ruthless drug lord Hernan Reyes in Rio de Janeiro and plot to steal all of Reyes' money to buy their freedom. It is revealed in Fast Five that O'Conner's father was not there for him and O'Conner does not know anything about him, unlike the close bond that Toretto's father had with both his children (not mentioning Jakob, who is the villain of the ninth film & Dom's estranged younger brother). He is often worried that he will behave in the manner that his father did, but Toretto reassured him that he won't because he will keep an eye on him if he does. O'Conner had been in juvenile detention with Roman before he became a cop. O'Conner has also rekindled his relationship with Mia, and she becomes pregnant with his child.
In the sixth film, O'Conner, Toretto, and Mia live peacefully in the Canary Islands in Spain, where Mia gives birth to their son. O'Conner joins Toretto's team in complying with the request of Agent Hobbs to take down rival gang leader Owen Shaw. When the team realizes that Braga worked for Shaw, O'Conner decides to enter the United States to interrogate him about Shaw. After successfully questioning Braga and returning to London, O'Conner starts to feel guilty for letting Letty go undercover, which led to her amnesia and subsequent work for Shaw. The group captures Shaw and convinces Letty to side with them. O'Conner apologizes to Letty, who says that she might not remember him, but if she did work for him, she would have done of her own free will. Shaw reveals that he had captured Mia, leading to a high-speed chase after Shaw's airplane, where Mia is rescued and Shaw is crippled and put into a coma. Hobbs then grants the group's amnesty, and the entire crew move back to America, where Mia, Toretto and O'Conner have decided to reside in the old Toretto home.
In the seventh and final film as a main character, O'Conner is in Los Angeles, where he is getting accustomed to life as a father. When Dom's house is destroyed, he joins Dom's crew in a series of missions to find and capture the bomber Deckard Shaw. The missions include an airdrop over the Caucasus Mountains to ambush Jakande's convoy; he jumps onto the bus to rescue the hacktivist Ramsey. At Abu Dhabi, he and Dominic break into a billionaire's apartment room to recover the flash drive containing the God's Eye program. He joins Dom and Mr. Nobody, along with a covert ops unit, to try to capture Shaw but is ambushed by Jakande and his militants, who have allied with Deckard. When Jakande goes after Dom's crew in Los Angeles, he is part of the driving team carrying Ramsay, but after his car is destroyed, goes on foot to restore the cell tower connection so that God's Eye can be hacked. Following the defeat of Jakande and Shaw, he and Mia return to normal family life by playing with their two children Jack and Gisele at the beach. When Dom leaves, he notices and pulls up beside Dom's car in his white Toyota Supra, asking Dom "You thought you could leave without saying goodbye?" They look at each other and smile, then drive together for a bit and then branch off in separate directions.
In the eighth film, O'Conner appears in a photograph along with Mia, and is mentioned by Letty and Roman when Dom betrays the team due to Cipher's actions. Roman suggests Brian be called in to help. But Letty refuses reminding him that team agreed to keep Brian and Mia out any conflict they are a part of. Dom later names his son after O'Conner.
In the ninth film, O'Conner is mentioned by Mia when Dom asks that there's still an empty chair, with Mia replying "He's on the way." O'Conner makes a cameo appearance when his Nissan Skyline car heads to the 1327 house to join the family dinner, but he's offscreen since he is not shown making a physical appearance.
O'Conner was first unknown with the car tuning (he owned a tuned Mitsubishi Eclipse in the first film, but it is hinted this was paid for by the LAPD-FBI task force he had gone undercover for), but after meeting Toretto, he became more positive and active in the racing scene, becoming a skilled mechanic. He is very interested in tuners, especially Nissan Skyline models. He owned two Nissan Skyline GT-R R34's (one in the second movie and one in the fourth), Nissan C10 Skyline and finally a Nissan GT-R.
Brian O'Connor is portrayed by Paul Walker.
Letty Ortiz
Leticia "Letty" Ortiz is married to Dominic, sister in-law to Jakob and Mia Toretto, aunt of Jack and a niece, daughter-in-law of Jack and stepmother of Brian Marcos. She is also a highly skilled street racer and mechanic.
In The Fast and the Furious, Letty expresses some concern about Dominic's carjacking scheme, but goes along to back him up despite her concerns. In the end, during a botched highway robbery, she rolls her car and is injured, but survives.
During the events of Fast & Furious, she is on Dominic's crew in his heists of fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic, but when the local law enforcement starts closing in, he leaves her behind to protect her from harm. Several weeks later, Mia calls Dominic to tell him Letty has been apparently murdered by Fenix. It is later revealed that after she could not find Dominic, Letty contacted FBI agent Brian O'Conner and became a double agent for Braga's crime ring in order to clear Dominic's charges and allow him to come home.
In the post-credits scene of Fast Five, Luke Hobbs receives a file regarding a robbery, in which Letty's photograph is attached, revealing that she is still alive; Fenix did not, in fact, kill her, and instead involved her in the robbery of a German military convoy.
In Fast & Furious 6, it is revealed that she has amnesia, and is part of a lethally skilled mercenary organization led by Owen Shaw, a criminal mastermind. Dominic makes several attempts to try and reach out to her. It was revealed that Brian felt guilty for having Letty be an informant for the FBI to help him to take down Arturo Braga and having this led to her being presumed dead. She is also described as a tough street woman by Riley, which is true during their first encounter. Shaw orders Letty to detach a cable line to Roman's car that was holding the tank from escaping. While attempting to do so, she is rescued by Dominic, gaining her full trust in him. Brian attempts to apologize to her, but Letty tells him that she doesn't remember much for being an informant and if she did, no one forces her to do something she doesn't want to do. She assists Hobbs, Dom and the others in stopping both Owen and Riley. Despite not being able to remember her previous life with Dom, she returns home with him stating that "it feels like home".
In Furious 7, Letty temporarily leaves Dom to sort through her amnesia and find out who she is on her own. However, after Deckard Shaw kills Han and blows up Dom's house, Letty rejoins the team. During the course of the mission, Letty's memories come back after hitting her head in a fight with Kara, including that she and Dom were married some point before Fast & Furious. Letty is last seen with her husband and friends on the beach, commenting on how different things will be now that Brian O'Conner is retiring.
In The Fate of the Furious, Letty and Dom are enjoying their honeymoon in Havana. Everyone is taken by surprise when Dom seemingly betrays them in Berlin. While the others are convinced of his betrayal, only Letty knew something was wrong and suspected someone was blackmailing him. Her suspicion proved true when Cipher and Dom attacked Mr. Nobody's secret base. She is last seen meeting Dom's son, Brian.
In F9, Letty joins Dom and the others to stop Dom's younger brother Jakob, an assassin who has joined forces with Cipher and holds an unknown personal grudge against his older brother.
Letty is portrayed by Michelle Rodriguez. Young Letty Ortiz is portrayed by Azia Dinea Hale.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
Los Bandoleros
Fast & Furious
Fast Five (photo)
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
F9
Cars driven
1997 Nissan 240SX, first film
1995 Honda Civic, first film
1973 Plymouth Road Runner, fourth film
1973 Jensen Interceptor, sixth film
1974 Plymouth Barracuda, seventh film
2015 Dodge Challenger, seventh film
2010 Dodge Viper, seventh film
2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, eighth film
1970 Chevrolet Chevelle, eighth film
1966 Chevrolet Corvette (C2), eighth film
Local Motors Rally Fighter, eighth film
1974 Chevy Nova SS, ninth film
Harley-Davidson Sportster Iron, ninth film
Mia Toretto
Mia Toretto is Dominic and Jakob's sister, daughter of Jack, mother of Jack and a daughter, cousin of Tony and Fernando, aunt of Brian. Mia knows of her brother's crimes, but disapproves and does not involve herself in them, though she cares for her brother nonetheless, as he was the one who looked after and raised her following their father's death. Dominic's friend, Vince, is shown to be attracted to her. Mia is also shown to be a proficient driver as she also grew up with Dominic under their race car driver father.
In Fast & Furious, Mia is under surveillance by the FBI. She is seen at Letty's funeral and is mostly seen afterwards either persuading Dominic not to get in danger, or talking to Brian about their past together. When Dominic gets injured, Brian calls her to help him.
In Fast Five, she is happily living with Brian and reveals that she is pregnant with his baby. Throughout the film, she assists Dominic's crew in the heist by driving and staying back at base with surveillance.
In Fast & Furious 6, she and Brian now have a son named Jack. After Elena helps rescue Jack, Mia is kidnapped by Shaw's henchmen Vegh and Klaus. She is rescued by Brian and returns to the U.S. with Dom and the others.
In Furious 7, Mia does not get involved in the team's mission for revenge on Deckard Shaw, who has murdered their close friend Han Lue and had blown up the family home, as she stays to look after Jack and is pregnant with her second child, she and Brian now have a daughter. Mia is extremely worried that Brian will be killed but also confesses to her brother that she fears the quiet life may not be for Brian due to him telling her he "misses the bullets". She is last seen on the beach playing with her family as the rest of the team look on.
In The Fate of the Furious, Mia is mentioned by Letty as she reminds Roman that the team all agreed to keep Brian and her out of any conflict they are a part of.
Mia reappeared in F9, explaining to Dom that she wants to join the search for Jakob as he is her brother too. Mia Toretto is portrayed by Jordana Brewster. Young Mia Toretto is portrayed by Siena Agudong.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
Los Bandoleros (photo)
Fast & Furious
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious (photo)
F9
Cars driven
1994 Acura Integra Type R, first film
1994 Toyota Supra, first film
2003 Acura NSX-T, with Honda NSX Type R Badges and parts fourth and fifth film
1965 Ford GT40, fifth film
2012 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde, sixth film
1974 Chevy Nova SS, ninth film
Roman Pearce
Roman "Rome" Pearce is a childhood friend of Brian O'Conner. Originating from Barstow, California, Roman grew up alongside O'Conner. In Fast Five, Brian says that he and Roman had met in juvenile detention. Two months after Brian finished Police Academy, Roman was arrested when he was found in a garage with eight stolen cars, and sent to prison for three years and after release, was prohibited to go more than a hundred yards from his home. Although Brian had no prior information for Roman's arrest, Roman overall blamed Brian for the simple fact that he was a cop. Roman and Brian later mended their ways when Roman agreed to participate in a sting operation on Miami drug lord Carter Verone and later talked about opening their own high performance garage using pocketed amounts of Verone's drug money. However, when Brian became an FBI agent, Roman started spending time and money gambling in Las Vegas, according to his Fast Five profile. Roman appears again in Fast Five as part of Dominic and Brian's team as a "fast-talker" (someone who can talk their way through anything, or as Dom puts it, "bullshit his way through anything") in their attempt to steal a vault from a corrupt Brazilian businessman. He is reluctant at first, thinking the mission is personal and not being good business until Dominic utters the vault is filled with one hundred million dollars in cash which is enough to change his mind. With his cut of the money, he buys a Koenigsegg CCXR Edition sports car and travels around the world in his own private jet. He helps Dominic take down Owen Shaw and returns to the U.S in the sixth film, helps Dom take down Owen's brother Deckard Shaw in the seventh film, helps the team get Dom back and take down Cipher in the eighth film and helps the team in their fight against Dom's long-lost younger brother Jakob in the ninth film. He is portrayed by Tyrese Gibson.
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
F9
Cars driven
1971 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, second film
2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GTS, second film
1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, second film
1995 Toyota Supra, fifth film
2011 Dodge Charger R/T Police Car, fifth film
2009 Koenigsegg CCXR, fifth film
2010 BMW E60 M5, sixth film
1969 Ford Anvil Mustang, sixth film
1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, seventh film
2012 Bugatti Veyron, seventh film
1985 Chevrolet Caprice Classic, seventh film
2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, eighth film
Bentley Continental GT, eighth film
Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, eighth film
2018 Acura NSX, ninth film
Pontiac Fiero, ninth film
Tej Parker
Tej Parker is an old friend of Brian who allows him to participate in races hosted by him near his garage in Miami. Tej does not race anymore, preferring to referee and make money off selling parts out of his garage and also due to what he claims to have stopped him from racing, an injured leg. He has an off-on relationship with Suki. When Brian needs a place to stay, he allows Brian and Roman to stay in his garage rooms for a while. Later, when Brian needs to orchestrate a "scramble" to escape detection by the FBI, Tej shows him another large car garage owned by him, which they use for the scramble. Tej and Suki drive Brian and Roman's Mitsubishis out to be intercepted by the FBI, allowing them to continue their mission which shows that he still can drive as well. Tej also appeared in Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious and F9 as part of Dominic and Brian's crew, brought on as their technician expert. Tej Parker is portrayed by Ludacris.
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
F9
Cars driven
2002 Acura NSX, second film
2001 Dodge Ram, second film
2002 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, with Mitsubishi Lancer O-Z Rally Edition taillights and DAMD body kit second film
1963 Ford Galaxie 500, fifth film
1994 Toyota Supra, fifth film
2009 Koenigsegg CCXR, fifth film
2003 Ferrari Enzo/FXX, sixth film
2010 BMW E60 M5, sixth film
2012 Lucra LC470, sixth film
2015 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, seventh film
2010 Ferrari 458, seventh film
2016 Mercedes-AMG GT S, eighth film
Howe & Howe Technologies Ripsaw, eighth film
2020 Jeep Gladiator, ninth film
Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, ninth film
Sean Boswell
Sean Boswell is the main character of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
He is a 17-year-old loner in school during the events of the film. After having three strikes of street racing in the United States, Sean's mother sent him to Tokyo, Japan, to live with his father and avoid jail time. In Japan he was introduced to the drift racing scene and made good friends with Han, a former member of Dominic Toretto's crew and Sean's supporter throughout the film. He eventually met Dom at the end of the film and raced him through a parking garage. After the race, he talks with Dom about Han and gives him some of Han's personal effects which were found after the crash.
Aside from Han and Dom, Sean had no connection to any other major characters in the series until F9, where Sean, along with Twinkie and Earl, who are now in their 20s, are all working at an airbase in Cologne, building a Pontiac Fiero with a rocket engine, and meet with Roman and Tej, who are looking for some vehicles on which they could get their hands on. They then test the rocket car while Roman and Tej observe, but the car explodes from some distance away. Sean and Earl then help Roman and Tej with their space mission in destroying Otto's satellite and both along with Twinkie join Dom and family at the 1327 house in Los Angeles, where the three reunite with Han.
Sean Boswell is portrayed by Lucas Black.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Fast & Furious 6 (2013) (archive footage)
Furious 7 (2015) (cameo)
F9 (2021)
Cars driven
1971 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, third film
2003 Volkswagen Touran, with The Incredible Hulk paint and body scheme third film
2001 Nissan Silvia S15 with a Nissan RB Engine, third film
2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII, with an APR wide-body aero kit and RWD conversion, third and sixth (post-credits) film
1997 Mazda RX-7, with Veilside body kit third film (Han Instructed to drive)
1967 Ford Mustang GT with a Nissan RB Engine, third film
Nissan Silvia S15, third and seventh film
Han Lue
Han Lue, also known by the alias Han Seoul-Oh, is an aloof former gang member and street racer, a member of Dominic's crew in Fast & Furious, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, and Sean Boswell's mentor and friend in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Chronologically, in Fast & Furious he steals fuel tankers with Dominic, while in Fast Five he joins Dom and Brian's heist team as a precision driver and a "chameleon". While planning the heist in Fast Five, Gisele attributes Han's constant need to occupy his hands to him being a former smoker. After the heist, Han and Gisele start a relationship and travel together through Europe, starting with Berlin. They assist Dom and his crew in taking down Owen Shaw in Fast & Furious 6. However, after Gisele dies saving his life, Han moves to Tokyo.
In Tokyo Drift, Han hires Sean Boswell as a delivery driver and teaches him how to race against Takashi. During a conspicuous getaway, a silver Mercedes crashes into his car, causing it to flip over and then explode. In the post-credits scene of Fast & Furious 6, Deckard Shaw (portrayed by Jason Statham) is revealed to have driven the Mercedes after tracking the street racers on a police radio. Dominic goes to Japan to retrieve his body; he and his crew have a funeral for him in Furious 7.
F9 reveals that after Gisele's death, Han had been secretly recruited by Mr. Nobody, who helped Han fake his death at the hands of Deckard Shaw. He becomes the protector of Elle, and rejoins the team after it is revealed that she is wanted by Otto and Jakob.
Han is portrayed by Sung Kang. In the Fast & Furious 6 production notes, his last name is listed as Lue, while in Furious 7, his name appears in the DSS files as Han Seoul-Oh, a nod to Han Solo from Star Wars. Director Justin Lin has stated that Seoul-Oh is a fake ID.
Gisele Yashar
Gisele Yashar was the liaison for Braga who developed feelings for Dominic, who does not reciprocate. She warns him of potential danger that awaits him after delivering Braga's heroin across the border. Dominic saves her life in the chaos surrounding the heroin exchange meant as a trap for Braga. She returns the favor by giving the location of Braga's hideout in Mexico. Gisele re-appears alongside Dominic's crew assisting him and Brian in their heist as their weapons expert, where it is revealed that she is a former Mossad agent. She and Han eventually start a relationship and take off to Europe together after the heist in Rio de Janeiro.
Gisele reappears in Fast & Furious 6, along with Han, and helps Dom and the gang take on a rival gang of hijacking, car criminals. In a running gag, she takes pride in her ability to accomplish objectives on her own where men would fail, that is, using her attractiveness to infiltrate Herman Reyes's bodyguards and Owen Shaw's security. She falls from the roof of an airborne car to her death while shooting the man who would have shot Han. Her last name in the sixth film's production notes is Harabo, while her file in the fifth film presents it as Yashar. However, Lin has said that, like Han, she was not given a last name. She is portrayed by Gal Gadot.
Luke Hobbs
Lucas "Luke" Hobbs is a United States Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agent and bounty hunter. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw reveals that he grew up in Samoa and his father ran an elaborate group of thieves, consisting of Hobbs' brothers, some of whom their father unrepentantly allowed to be killed, but Hobbs left the island after he turned his father in and has not returned for years.
In Fast Five, Hobbs is trying to bring down Toretto's crew which is his number one priority when he believes that Toretto's crew killed the DEA agents in the train. After outsmarting Toretto and ambushing him, Mia, Brian, and Vince in their base, he takes them into custody to take back to the United States for prosecution. When his team is killed in an ambush by Hernan Reyes en route to the airport to take the fugitives home, he joins Toretto's team to steal Reyes' money, and personally kills a badly-injured Reyes, avenging his team. Faced with the chance to arrest the team after Reyes' death, he instead offers them a 24-hour head start to get to safety before he will start the search again.
In Fast & Furious 6, he comes to Toretto for help to bring down Owen Shaw, the leader of an international crime syndicate, recognizing that Toretto's team is the best candidate to match Shaw's own skills. He partners up with DSS Agent, Riley Hicks, who turns out to be a double agent who double-crossed Hobbs and Toretto's team. While Riley and Letty are fighting with each other in the airplane, Hobbs tosses a harpoon to Letty, who in return uses it to impale Riley off the airplane, killing her on impact. After the mission is completed, Hobbs grants amnesty to Toretto and his team, the two men publicly disagreeing on which of them was in charge during that mission but privately acknowledging that they trust each other.
In Furious 7, Shaw's older brother, Deckard, breaks into Hobbs' DSS office to extract profiles of Dom's crew. After revealing his identity, Shaw engages Hobbs in a fight and later escapes by detonating a bomb that sends Hobbs and his partner Elena, flying out of a window and onto a car parked below. He is injured by the fall and rushed to the hospital by Elena. Dom later visits Hobbs in the hospital, where he learns that Shaw is a rogue British Special Forces assassin seeking to avenge his brother, Owen. During the final climactic scene, Hobbs, seeing that the team is being hunted by a Predator UAV drone, leaves the hospital–even breaking his own cast–and destroys the UAV drone by ramming it with an ambulance. Later, Hobbs plays a part in taking down Jakande when he shoots a belt of grenades that was slung onto Jakande's chopper by Toretto destroying the helicopter and killing Jakande. He later imprisons Shaw in a maximum security prison.
In The Fate of the Furious, Hobbs initially appears coaching his daughter Samantha's sports team, before being approached by a government contact to conduct an off-the-books mission to retrieve an EMP device from a facility in Berlin and warned that he will be acting unofficially and will face arrest if captured. Although he claims the device with the aid of Dom's team, he is captured after Dom steals the device himself due to the blackmail of cyber-terrorist Cipher, resulting in Hobbs being sent to the same prison as Shaw. However, he is swiftly 'released' by Mr. Nobody to help Dom's team track down Dom and Cipher, learning that she is seeking to gain control of nuclear launch codes to appoint herself to a position of power over the world. Despite the odds against them, Hobbs and Dom's team manage to track Cipher while Dom sets plans in motion to escape her blackmail himself, culminating in the destruction of the converted Russian nuclear submarine Cipher was planning to use to launch her stolen missiles. Although offered reinstatement after the threat is over, Hobbs decides to remain officially retired to spend more time with his daughter and his new "family", being Dom's team.
In Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Hobbs is recruited by the CIA as part of a joint task force - also including Deckard Shaw - to capture a seemingly rogue MI6 agent who has apparently stolen a lethal genetically engineered virus with the potential to unleash an extinction level event. Although Hobbs captures the rogue agent, matters shift when he learns that the woman is Shaw's sister Hattie, and she actually injected herself with the virus to keep it away from Brixton Lore, the man who framed Shaw for killing the rest of his team. Now cybernetically enhanced by Eteon, an organization who believe that human extinction is inevitable and seek to unleash mass murder to bring humanity into 'balance', Lore attempts to capture Hattie so that Eteon can use the virus to further their own agenda, forcing Hobbs and Shaw to work together to keep her safe. After destroying Eteon's Moscow base and retrieving a device that will allow them to extract the virus, Hobbs takes them to Samoa so that his brother Jonah can repair the damaged equipment before a final confrontation with Lore. Having disabled Eteon's advanced weapons, Hobbs leads his family in the Siva Tau before they defeat Eteon's forces, working with Shaw to outmaneouver the enhanced Lore by alternating which of them will take the punch so that the other can get past Lore's defences. At the film's conclusion, Lore is killed when Eteon shut down his cybernetics for his failure and Hobbs takes his daughter to Samoa to introduce her to his family, but receives a call that another dangerous virus has been stolen.
Luke Hobbs is portrayed by Dwayne Johnson. In July 2021, Johnson announced that he would not be returning for the final two Fast films. In November 2021, Vin Diesel offered for him to return for the final Fast films by sending him a post on Instagram mentioning his own children and Paul Walker, with Johnson turning down the offer and ultimately criticizing the method in which the offer was extended.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Cars driven
GURKHA Armored Vehicle, fifth film
Navistar MXT, sixth film
International 4000 ambulance, seventh film
Land Rover Defender, eighth film
International MXT, eighth film
Dodge Ram modified for ice, eighth film
Deckard Shaw
Deckard "Deck" Shaw is a UKSF assassin and MI6 agent and also the older brother of Hattie and Owen Shaw and Magdalene's son. He is introduced into the series as the main villain in Furious 7 and he seeks revenge against Dom after he injured and put Owen into a critical condition in Fast & Furious 6. Seeking to avenge his comatose brother, he visits him in a secure hospital in London and kills all of the guards. Shaw sends a message to Dominic by apparently killing Han during The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in a car chase in Tokyo, Japan and blowing up Dominic's old house in Los Angeles in the seventh film. By the climactic ending, Deckard is captured and put into a CIA Detention Black Site prison, promising to escape and continue his revenge though Hobbs expresses doubts about it.
In The Fate of the Furious, Shaw is recruited into the crew by Mr. Nobody as an ally, as part of the quest to figure out why Dominic has betrayed them. Shaw has his own motives to destroy Cipher (who has blackmailed Dom). Cipher tried to recruit him in her plans, and when he refused, she recruited his brother instead, which started the chain of events that led to the Shaw brothers' feud with Dom, and his crew. He is seemingly shot by Dom before Letty grabs the briefcase and tries to escape. As the film goes on, Shaw ultimately redeems himself, and in the climax, along with the recovered Owen, he saves Dominic's baby son from Cipher, although Cipher manages to escape to parts unknown. Shaw is last seen attending the crew's celebratory lunch in the end, where he makes peace with Dominic, by presenting to him his son and joins the team.
Hobbs & Shaw introduces his sister Hattie and reveals that he was framed for killing his old black ops team, 8-years previously, by Brixton Lore, who is now cybernetically enhanced by Eteon, an organization that believes that human extinction is inevitable and seek to prevent this through mass murder of the weak via an artificially engineered virus that Hattie has injected into herself. Forced to work with Luke Hobbs, Shaw is able to extract the virus from Hattie and then defeat Brixton.
Shaw later makes a cameo appearance in the post-credits scene of F9, where he is shown trying to interrogate a man for some information when he gets an unexpected visit from Han, shocking him as he believed him to be dead. Deckard Shaw is portrayed by Jason Statham.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6 (cameo)
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
F9 (cameo)
Cars driven
1994 Mercedes-Benz W140 , sixth film
2008 Aston Martin DB9, seventh film
2011 Lamborghini Aventador , seventh film
2014 Maserati Ghibli, seventh film
2014 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe, seventh film
Fast Attack Vehicle, seventh film
2016 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe, eighth film
2018 McLaren 720S, Hobbs & Shaw
Ramsey
Ramsey is a British computer hacker and the creator of God's Eye, a program capable of tracking a specific person through digital services and coveted by mercenary Mose Jakande. Ramsey was a prisoner of Jakande, until Dom and his crew rescue her. Subsequently, she assists Dom and his crew in collecting the God's Eye, stating that she trusts them more than her previous captors as the team is clearly brought together by respect and trust rather than the fear that kept her captors loyal. When she makes contact with her associate Safar, she learns that the hard drive has been sold away to a Jordanian prince despite her previous warning to keep it safe. When they lose the program to Jakande, Ramsey helps the crew to hack and regain control of it, then shuts it down.
Ramsey returns in The Fate of the Furious, having joined Dom's team as a secondary technical advisor to Tej. Due to being the newest member, she was the one who doubted Dom the most after his betrayal. Throughout the film, she is constantly in the middle of Roman and Tej's respective advances towards her: after Cipher is defeated, she admits that she likes both of them, but would only choose one of them if they figured out what her last name is.
She again reappears in F9, where she and the rest of the crew prepare themselves to take down Dom's estranged brother Jakob. Ramsey is portrayed by Nathalie Emmanuel.
Film appearances
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
F9
Jakob Toretto
Jakob Toretto is the estranged brother of Dom and Mia, son of Jack, brother-in-law of Brian O'Conner and Letty Ortiz, uncle of Jack, Brian, and Gisele. He works as a master thief, assassin and a high performance driver. He was Mr. Nobody's subordinate but went criminal prior to the series. It is revealed that Dom banished Jakob from the family after he accused him of causing their father's death, which was due to Jakob leaving an oil patch on the racetrack where their father ultimately died. Soon after, Jakob is taken in by Buddy, one of the member of their father's pit crew. Due to this, Jakob holds a personal grudge against Dom, who he claims to have "turned his back" on him, despite Dom's "never turn your back on family" motto, therefore wanting him to either "live under his shadow" or get killed. Because of this reason, he and his personal associate Otto capture the cyber-terrorist Cipher (although Jakob refuses to work with her as he "doesn't work for the competition") and force her to give them the remaining pieces to Project Aries, a device that can hack into any computer weapons system. Towards the end of F9, however, Otto double-crosses Jakob and begins to work with Cipher, leading the brothers to reconcile and work together in the movie's final battle to defeat Cipher, even though she escapes once more. At the end of the film, Dom finally forgives Jakob for his role in their father's death by helping him escape his enemies by giving him the keys to his Dodge Charger, similar to what Brian O'Conner did with Dom in the first film. Jakob Toretto portrayed by John Cena. Young Jakob is portrayed by Finn Cole.
Film appearances
F9
Cars driven
1968 Dodge Charger 500, ninth film
1992 Ford Mustang, ninth film
2012 Toyota GT86, ninth film
2015 Ford Mustang GT, ninth film
2020 Toyota Supra, ninth film
Supporting characters
The Fast and the Furious
Vince
Vince is a childhood friend and street racer under Dominic Toretto. He opposed O'Conner's inclusion into Dominic's crew especially since his sister favored O'Conner over him. During Race Wars, Johnny Tran blames Dominic for the SWAT forces that came into his house, disrespecting his whole family for being narced out by someone and they get into a fight. Vince then leads Dominic away telling him to chill out. Near the end of the first film, Vince is seriously injured when he is shot by a trucker whose shipments he attempted to hijack. He recovers from his injuries, escapes from the hospital, and goes to Rio de Janeiro. He is not present or mentioned in Fast & Furious, but can be seen in a picture with Letty and Dominic at Letty's funeral, although his face is not clear. Vince re-appears in Fast Five living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro with his wife, Rosa and infant son, Nico (who is named after Dominic). He tries to steal one of three cars on a train he attempted to hijack in an earlier mission, but it goes awry. Dominic's trust in his longtime friend is strained for a time when he was caught hiding information from the team, but ultimately regains that trust after saving Mia from being killed and joins Dominic's heist team. Before the crew could perform their heist on Reyes, he is later captured by Hobbs along with Dominic, Brian and Mia, but is fatally wounded while saving Hobbs from Zizi's ambush on the convoy. Before he dies, Dominic promises Vince that he will watch over Rosa and Nico. After the successful heist on Reyes, Dominic gives Vince's share to Rosa and Nico, promising to visit soon. Vince is portrayed by Matt Schulze. Young Vince is portrayed by Karson Kern.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
Fast & Furious (photo)
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6 (archive footage/photo)
F9 (flashbacks)
Cars driven
1998 Nissan Maxima with Dodge Viper GTS Blue Paint, first film
1995 Honda Civic, first film
1971 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S, fifth film
Leon
Leon is a friend and street racer under Dominic Toretto. Leon acts as a dispatcher during the street race at the beginning of the film alerting everyone of police presence, and is a participant in the truck heist gone bad. His whereabouts after the first film are unknown and is presumed to be devastated over the death of Jesse by Johnny Tran and Lance and as well as Vince by Hernan Reyes and his men. Leon is portrayed by Johnny Strong.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
Fast & Furious (photo)
Cars driven
1996 Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R, first film
1995 Volkswagen Jetta GLX, first film
1995 Honda Civic, first film
Jesse
Jesse is a street racer and the brains of Dominic's operations, and he is a wheelman in the heists. Jesse admits to having ADD and is shown often stuttering in his speeches and acting very nervous. Despite this setback, he is the computer nerd of the group as he is responsible for creating the designs, doing background checks on people, and hacking the engine characteristics of Toretto's race vehicles with precise calculations (a potential characteristic of those with ADD as they may at times have high IQs). However, he is somewhat irresponsible, a fact which was evident when he raced Johnny Tran for pink slips against the wishes of both Brian and Toretto who warned him that Tran had over $100,000 under the hood of his vehicle. This proved to be true as Jesse lost to Tran, later driving off and escaping his loss. An enraged Tran and an accomplice later pull a drive-by shooting at Toretto's house missing everyone but Jesse, who gets hit, killing him instantly. Brian and Dominic chase after Tran, shooting him dead and avenging Jesse's death. Jesse is portrayed by Chad Lindberg. Young Jesse is portrayed by Igby Rigney.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
F9 (flashbacks)
Cars driven
1995 Volkswagen Jetta, first film
1995 Honda Civic, first film
Hector
Hector is a former street racer and organizer. He is a friend to both Dominic and Brian. In the first movie, Hector organizes and attends the original race in which Dominic and Brian participate, which is later interrupted by the police; he has a last name, but claims he "can't pronounce it". Brian begins investigating Hector and Tran's activities and is convinced that Tran is behind the hijackings, believing his suspicions are founded when he discovers an unusual purchase made by Hector in The Racer's Edge (the parts shop where Brian works). Hector later throws a party at El Gato Negro, but his whereabouts after this party are unknown. Hector returns in Furious 7, where he takes an accidental punch from Letty at the Race Wars after she has a traumatic flashback when the girl fans from the race wars pick on her, but Hector is not angry; Dominic jokes that he "never could take a punch". Hector is portrayed by Noel Gugliemi.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
Furious 7
Jack Toretto
Jack Toretto is the father of Dominic, Jakob and Mia. During the last stock car race of the season in 1989, Jack was clipped by Kenny Linder through the bumper, causing him to violently run into the wall at high speed. Jack was killed instantly in the crash as his car burst into flames upon impact. Jack Toretto is portrayed by J.D. Pardo.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious (photo)
F9 (flashbacks)
2 Fast 2 Furious
Suki
Suki is a friend of Brian and sometimes girlfriend of Tej Parker. She is shown to have a highly competitive nature but she is also an excellent driver by handling losses easily. Despite that Brian has won against her numerous times, they remain good friends, and she later helps Brian and Pearce out by driving Pearce's Mitsubishi along with Tej to allow the pair to escape custody. Suki is portrayed by Devon Aoki. Suki's car had appeared in the music videos Ludacris' "Act a Fool", Pink's "Stupid Girls" and Lindsay Lohan's "First".
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Cars driven
2000 Honda S2000, second film
2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GTS, second film
Jimmy
Jimmy is a mechanic who works for Tej and is a close friend of Brian. He makes a few appearances in 2 Fast 2 Furious, including one which he freestyle raps during a poker game at Tej's garage. He is portrayed by MC Jin.
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Slap Jack
Slap Jack is one of the street racers in the first race of the movie. While trying to beat Brian O'Conner's Skyline using nitrous, Brian outsmarts him also using the nitrous and jumping first off the bridge. After jumping the draw bridge, his Supra gets severely damaged, crash lands and crashes into a Pepsi billboard while Brian wins the race. Although his Supra is rebuilt during the scramble scene. He is portrayed by Michael Ealy. Slap Jack's car Toyota Supra made appearances in the short film The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious, as well as music videos Ludacris' "Act a Fool" and Lindsay Lohan's "First".
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Cars driven
1993 Toyota Supra Mark IV, second film
Orange Julius
Orange Julius is another street racer during the first race of the film. He is Spanish-American and wears an orange cap and an orange suit to hint his name. During the race, he tries to reach the bridge jump, but just stopped instead, refusing to finish the race. It is unknown if he finished the race or not if the bridge closed or opened. He is also seen during the scramble sequence in the end of the movie. His name is unrelated to the fruit beverage restaurant of the same name. His RX-7 is similar to Dominic Torreto's RX-7 from the first film minus the spoiler. He is portrayed by Amaury Nolasco. Orange Julius' car made appearances in the television film The Last Ride, and the short film The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious, as well as music videos Ludacris' "Act a Fool" and Lindsay Lohan's "First".
Film appearances;
2 Fast 2 Furious
Cars driven
1992 FD Mazda RX-7, second film
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Twinkie
Twinkie is Sean's first friend he meets in Tokyo. He takes and introduces him to the world of drifting where Sean wrecks Han's favorite car. He is one of Han's crew who helps Sean in the movie. He is a mechanic more than a street racer and also sells pre-owned goods. By the events in F9 Twinkie is now working with Sean and Earl in Germany. Twinkie is portrayed by Bow Wow.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Furious 7 (archive footage)
F9
Cars driven
2003 Volkswagen Touran with The Incredible Hulk paint and body scheme, third film
2005 Volkswagen Golf R32, third film and deleted scene
Neela Ezar
Neela Ezar is the love interest of Sean Boswell. When Sean arrives in Japan and goes to school, he meets Neela in class. When Sean goes to the drifting world with Twinkie, he sees Neela and begins talking to her then he realizes that she is with Takashi when confronted by him. Later, Neela claims that she grew up with Takashi after her mother died. As the movie goes on, she starts to like Sean even more. When Han is nearly killed by Deckard Shaw, she was taken by Takashi. Eventually in the end, she ends up with Sean after he defeats Takashi on a final race down a mountain. She soon discovers it was Deckard Shaw who caused Han to crash and be killed. Neela is portrayed by Nathalie Kelley.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Fast & Furious 6 (archive footage)
Furious 7 (archive footage)
Cars driven
2004 Mazda RX-8, third film
Earl
Earl is one of Han's friends and crew member who tunes for racers, using stand-alone fuel management systems to control fuel and timing. By the events of F9 Earl is now a rocket scientist. Earl is portrayed by Jason Tobin.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
F9
Reiko
Reiko is the other friend and crew member of Han's. She is a data-log analyzer that helps Earl tune by checking the driving habits and various engine telemetry stored in data-logs. Reiko is portrayed by Keiko Kitagawa.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Cars driven
2005 Volkswagen Golf R32, third film and deleted scenes
Fast & Furious
Cara Mirtha
Cara Mirtha is Han's girlfriend and member of Toretto's crew in the beginning of the film and she stays with Han during the heist. She presumably breaks up with Han afterward, since Han is single in Fast Five and begins a relationship with Gisele at the end of the film. Her sister, Leysa appears in F9. Cara Mirtha is portrayed by Mirtha Michelle.
Film appearances
Los Bandoleros
Fast & Furious
Rico Santos
Rico Santos was a member of Toretto's crew in the beginning of the film and then in the end when they are busting Dominic out of the prison bus. He is in Dominic's crew assisting with the heist in Rio de Janeiro. Rico does not join Dom and his crew in capturing Owen Shaw in Fast & Furious 6, his absence explained as him having been last seen at a casino with Tego in Monte Carlo. In The Fate of the Furious, he is seen with Tego on the ambulance taking Deckard Shaw to hospital. Rico Santos is portrayed by Don Omar. Young Rico Santos is portrayed by Ozuna.
Film appearances
Los Bandoleros
Fast & Furious
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6 (Archive footage)
Furious 7 (Archive footage)
The Fate of the Furious (cameo)
F9
Cars driven
1993 Ford Club Wagon, fifth film
1994 Toyota Supra, fifth film
Tego Leo
Tego Leo is a member of Toretto's crew in the beginning of the film. Drives the car at the end of the film with Santos when they go with Brian and Mia to get Dominic out of the prison bus. He is in Dominic's crew assisting with the heist in Rio de Janeiro. Afterwards, Tego and his friend Rico were last seen in a casino in Monte Carlo and do not join Dom and his crew in their mission to capture Owen Shaw. In The Fate of the Furious, Tego and Rico are part of the elaborate deception pulled off to fake Deckard Shaw's death. The two load Deckard onto the ambulance to take him to the hospital. Leo Tego is portrayed by Tego Calderón. Young Leo Tego is portrayed by Cered.
Film appearances
Los Bandoleros
Fast & Furious
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6 (Archive footage)
Furious 7 (Archive footage)
The Fate of the Furious (cameo)
F9 (flashbacks)
Cars driven
1989 Chevrolet R3500 Crew Cab, fourth film
1978 Pontiac Trans Am, fourth and fifth film
2009 Nissan 370Z, fifth film
Furious 7
Safar
Safar is an Emirati mechanic and Ramsey's associate in Abu Dhabi. He was given by Ramsey a flash drive containing the God's Eye program, but, not knowing its importance, sold it to a Jordanian prince. To make amends, Safar tips Dom and his crew on where the drive is located. Safar is portrayed by Ali Fazal.
Film appearances
Furious 7
Mando
Mando is Dom's friend who lives in the Dominican Republic. He invites Brian, Mia and Jack to his place to hide from Deckard Shaw. While Dom, Brian and their crew are going after Shaw, he watches over Mia. While Brian and Mia were staying at his place, Brian built a surveillance hub in Mando's garage. Mando is portrayed by Romeo Santos.
Film appearances
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
Magdalene Shaw
Magdalene "Queenie" Shaw is the mother of Deckard, Hattie and Owen Shaw. Little of her life is revealed, but she appears to be a crime boss of some sort, with a fearsome reputation. She seems to be aware of her sons actions due to the trouble they caused in the sixth and seventh films. In The Fate of the Furious, Dominic arranges a private meeting with her to make a deal that he'll arrange her sons' freedom from government custody if she has them rescue his son from Cipher's plane. She is later incarcerated prior to the events of Hobbs & Shaw and has made several attempts to escape. At the end of the film, it is implied that Deckard and Hattie free her using a device they hid in a cake. Magdalene Shaw is portrayed by Helen Mirren.
Film appearances
The Fate of the Furious
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
F9
Cars driven
2018 Noble M600, ninth film
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
/ Madam M
Margarita, also known as Madam M, is a professional thief and contact of Deckard. She and Deckard appear to have been romantically involved, although the extent of their relationship is not revealed. After Deckard comes to her for assistance with extracting the Snowflake virus from Hattie at the Eteon headquarters, Margarita helps Deckard, Hattie, and Hobbs infiltrate the headquarters by pretending that she captured Hattie to deliver her to the terrorist organization. She is portrayed by Eiza González.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Professor Andreiko
Professor Andreiko is a Russian scientist who created the Snowflake virus. Andreiko intended to use the virus for benevolent purposes, but it was manipulated by Eteon to become a biological weapon. After Hobbs, Deckard, and Hattie contact him about removing the virus from Hattie's body, he is captured by Eteon operative Brixton Lore and forced to assist the terrorist organization in acquiring Snowflake. When Hattie, Hobbs, and Deckard infiltrate Eteon's headquarters, Andreiko helps them escape by arming himself with a flamethrower before he is killed by Brixton. Andreiko is portrayed by Eddie Marsan.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Jonah Hobbs
Jonah Hobbs is a mechanic and the estranged older brother of Luke, living in Samoa with the rest of his family. Tensions between him and Luke stem from Luke having their father arrested when he continually involved his sons in his criminal activities. Nevertheless, when Luke comes to him for help in defeating Eteon, the brothers mend their relationship and Jonah repairs the extraction device needed to remove Snowflake from Hattie's blood, saving her life. Afterwards, Luke brings his daughter Sam to Samoa to meet Jonah and the rest of her extended family. Jonah is portrayed by Cliff Curtis.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
F9
Elle
Elle is the daughter of a London-based Japanese scientist couple who were involved in the development of Project Aries and a friend of Han Seoul-Oh. After the completion of the project, Elle's family returned to Japan during the events of Tokyo Drift, settling down in Tokyo, only for Elle to witness the death of her parents in an orchestrated car blast one rainy night and later on being pursued by an unknown group of mercenaries. This ultimately led to her chance encounter with Han (who was working for Mr. Nobody at that time on a mission). Han rescued her from her pursuers, making her his ward and family, and raised her while faking his death to safeguard himself from Deckard Shaw. Years later in F9, Elle has a chance meeting with Letty and Mia in Han's old hideout, helping them fight Otto's assassins and revealing Han's survival. She, along with Han, later unites with Dom's team, where (besides Han explaining how he survived Deckard Shaw's attempt to kill him) it is revealed that her DNA is the key to activate Project Aries. She is soon abducted by Otto's army, who force her to help them activate the device. Elle, however, is soon rescued from her captors by Han and the rest of the team (after which she lends a hand in fending off Otto's men), while Roman and Tej successfully destroy the satellite connected to the device. She is later seen visiting Dom's old home with Han to celebrate the team's victory with the others. Elle is portrayed by Anna Sawai.
Film appearances
F9
Leysa Mirtha
Leysa Mirtha is an old acquaintance of Dominic Toretto. In the past, Leysa used to be a thief stealing car parts and gas tanks, until Dom helped her improve her financial condition. She is the sister of Cara, Han's former love interest during Dominic Toretto's crew stint in Dominican Republic. In the present, she is seen leading a small all-female group of mercenaries cum con artists. Being grateful to Dom for helping her in the past, she cooperates in his escape from a tricky situation while coming face-to-face with Jakob in Edinburgh. Leysa is portrayed by Cardi B.
Film appearances
F9
Buddy
Buddy is an auto-mechanic and an old acquaintance of Dominic Toretto, who also used to be a close friend of Dom's father Jack. He was among the witnesses of the fatal accident which killed Jack. After Dom banished Jakob, he arranged for him to stay with Buddy, who took care of him until Jakob suddenly left, though Buddy kept track of his location. Being aware of the truth behind Jack's death, he was initially reluctant to inform Dom about Jakob being in London, knowing that the reunion of the brothers after many years could get ugly because of what happened in the past, though he eventually gave in due to Dom insisting it being urgent. Buddy is portrayed by Michael Rooker.
Film appearances
F9
Antagonists
The Fast and the Furious
Johnny Tran
Johnny Tran is the head of an opposing race crew to Dominic Toretto and implied to be involved in some form of organized crime. He is first seen blowing up Brian O'Conner's car, originally owned by Sgt. Tanner, with his gang's machine guns near the beginning of the film. It is soon revealed that their business deal went sour when Johnny found his sister sleeping with Dominic. Later, as O'Conner and Dominic spy on Tran at his garage, he is seen with his accomplice (and cousin) Lance interrogating a man named Ted Gassner regarding engines in his vehicles, which is also where they spot several boxes of merchandise in his garage (the kind being robbed in the film from truckers). This leads Brian O'Conner to organize a large SWAT assault team to invade Tran's house, only to find a few minor weapons charges and other minor issues. Tran gets slapped by his father for this and learned he destroyed Sgt. Tanner's car and pays $80,000 of the car. After being bailed out, Tran is later seen at the Race Wars, racing Jesse for pink slips. Both Dominic and Brian warn Jesse about Tran's vehicle having over $100,000 worth of upgrades, but Jesse ignores them and races Tran anyway. After Tran wins, he then confronts Dominic, accusing him of the SWAT team invasion of his home, which disrespected him in front of his entire family (unaware that the man responsible, Brian O'Conner, is right there in front of him; he soon becomes aware of this near the end). Dominic then delivers a right hook to Tran's face, and the two men scuffle on the ground before being broken up by the crowd. After Tran and Lance kill Jesse in a drive-by shooting while driving motorcycles, Brian and Dominic chase after the two, ending with Brian shooting Tran, killing him. Johnny Tran is portrayed by Rick Yune.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
Cars driven
Kawasaki KLR650, first film
2000 Honda S2000, first film
Lance Nguyen
Lance Nguyen is Johnny's cousin and henchman, who is known for his love of Snakeskin pants. He also destroyed Brian O'Conner's car owned by Sgt Tanner. He is arrested by Sgt. Tanner the owner of the car he and his cousin destroyed and later released from jail and Tran's father pays $80,000 of the vehicle that Lance and Tran destroyed. Tran and his accomplice Lance later pull a drive by at Dominic's house narrowly missing everyone except Jesse who was killed in the process. Dominic drives his 70 Dodge Charger into his dirt bike. Lance was injured in a motorcycle accident. What became after him afterwards is unknown. Lance is portrayed by Reggie Lee.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
Cars driven
Honda CR250M, first film
Kenny Linder
Kenny Linder is a former stock race driver in The Fast and the Furious. During the last stock car race of the season in 1989, Linder bumped into Jack Toretto and caused him to die in a violent crash. A week following the accident, Linder was attacked by Jack's son Dominic, who bashed him repeatedly with a wrench in a fit of uncontrolled rage. Linder suffered severe injuries to the left side of his face and, as a result of these injuries, could never drive again. He later found work at a high school as a janitor and commuted to work on a bus. Kenny Linder will appear again in F9 in the backstory of Dominic Toretto that was previously mentioned in the first film. Kenny Linder is portrayed by Jim Parrack.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious (photo)
F9
2 Fast 2 Furious
Carter Verone
Carter Verone is a drug dealer in Miami in 2 Fast 2 Furious who puts out the word that he needs drivers to deliver a "package", leading Customs and the FBI to place Brian O'Conner and Roman Pearce undercover as drivers in order to land charges on him. When O'Conner and Pearce learn that Verone plans to execute the two of them after his package is delivered, they hatch a plot to thwart him. O'Conner and Pearce successfully capture Verone at the end of the film. Carter Verone is portrayed by Cole Hauser.
Enrique
Enrique is Verone's henchman. He is beaten up by Brian and Roman after trying to kill Brian on Verones orders. Enrique is portrayed by Matt Gallini.
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Roberto
Roberto is Verone's other henchman. He is thrown out of Roman's car by an ejector seat. Roberto is portrayed by Roberto Sanchez.
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Cars driven
1968 Cadillac DeVille convertible, second film
1998 Dodge Durango, second film
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Takashi
Takashi is a street racer who was acknowledged as the best drift racer in Tokyo given the title "DK" (Drift King). He first confronts Sean at the drift race when Sean is talking to Neela. In the first race between them he easily beats Sean while Sean demolishes Han's favorite car. When Takashi's uncle Kamata comes to town he realizes that Han has been skimming money from their business. He goes to confront and chase Han and Sean down. During the chase, Han is nearly killed by Deckard Shaw and he takes Neela back. At the end he is beaten by Sean going down the mountain but still survives the crash. It is unknown what happened to him after the race, but in a deleted scene, he was apprehended by his uncle's henchmen. Takashi is portrayed by Brian Tee.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Fast & Furious 6 (Archive Footage)
Cars driven
2002 Nissan Fairlady 350Z w/ Veilside Mk. III Wide-body kit, third film
Morimoto
Morimoto was Takashi's close friend. Morimoto confronts Sean with Han and Takashi when Sean is talking to Neela at the drifting site. He also confronts and beats up Twinkie when he believes Twinkie sold him a broken iPod until Sean breaks up the fight who gives Morimoto his own iPod to replace the broken one. When Takashi goes to confront Han about skimming money from Takashi's business, Morimito accompanies him. While chasing Han and Sean he crashes into another car and dies instantly on impact. Morimoto is portrayed by Leonardo Nam.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Cars driven
2002 Nissan Fairlady 350Z with Top Secret wide-body kit, third film
Clay
Clay is the bullying high school quarterback. He appears at the beginning of the film when he agrees to race Sean after witnessing Sean talking to his girlfriend which caused a fight to occur at the school. He crashes during the race but manages to escape punishment with the help of his parents due to their wealth, leading Sean to go to Tokyo. Clay is portrayed by Zachery Ty Bryan.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Cars Driven
2006 Dodge Viper, third film
Fast & Furious
Arturo Braga
Arturo Braga is a drug trafficker who first appears as "Ramon Campos" in Fast & Furious. During a botched sting operation, it is revealed that "Campos" is Arturo Braga himself and he escapes to Mexico. Brian and Dominic capture him and bring him back to the USA. Arturo Braga is portrayed by John Ortiz. He returns making a cameo appearance in the sixth film being in jail having a connection with Shaw and O'Conner returns in the U.S. as a prisoner to gain access to Braga, who discloses how Letty survived the explosion that was thought to have killed her. Arturo Braga is portrayed by John Ortiz.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious
Fast & Furious 6 (cameo)
Fénix Calderón
Fénix "Rise" Calderón was Braga's right-hand man who was responsible for murdering Letty in Fast & Furious. However Letty is shown alive in Fast & Furious 6 it means Fénix failed to kill her. In the climatic chase through the tunnels, he T-bones Brian's car, causing him to crash. When Brian crawls out of the car, Fénix kicks him a few times and is about to shoot when Dominic comes out of the tunnel and impales him with a car, killing him. Fénix Calderón is portrayed by Laz Alonso.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious
Fast & Furious 6 (Flashbacks)
Furious 7 (Flashbacks)
Cars driven
1972 Ford Gran Torino, fourth film
Ramon Campos
Ramon Campos was Braga's double and a recruiter for drivers in the shipment of drugs in and out of Los Angeles. Ramon Campos is portrayed by Robert Miano.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious
Fast Five
Hernán Reyes
Hernán Reyes is a corrupt businessman and ruthless Brazilian drug lord who provides resources to the favelas in Rio de Janeiro to gain control over them. He also has most of the Rio civil and military police and local division of the Brazilian federal highway police (PRF) on his payroll, which allows him to hide his money inside a vault in their evidence room. He wants Toretto and O'Conner dead when they plot to steal his money. He has Hobbs' team and Vince killed on his orders, forcing a vengeful Hobbs to join Toretto. Towards the end of the movie, Dom crashes the vault, later revealed to be a fake, empty one, into Reyes' car, wounding him badly. As he crawls out of the car and begs for Hobbs' help, Hobbs kills him instantly as revenge for murdering Hobbs' team. Hernán Reyes is portrayed by Joaquim de Almeida.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Zizi
Zizi is a lead henchman for Hernán Reyes. He enlists Vince, who brings Brian, Mia, and Dominic, to help him steal three confiscated cars off a moving train. However, when Mia drives the GT40 away from the intended destination, he turns on Dominic and Brian, shooting the DEA agents in the process. He also leads the ambush on Hobbs' convoy, killing most of Hobbs' team before his hit squad is wiped out by Toretto, Brian, and Vince, allowing them, Hobbs, Mia, and Elena to escape. Towards the end of the film, he is shot and killed by Brian when he tries to kill Dominic. Zizi is portrayed by Michael Irby.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Cars driven
2002 Volkswagen Touareg, fifth film
Fast & Furious 6
Owen Shaw
Owen Shaw is a paramilitary-trained criminal mastermind. Formerly with the Special Air Service (the special ops of the British Army), Shaw has assembled a team of mercenaries to rob high-tech devices worth billions in the black market. While trying to escape on the plane with the chip, Dom stops him and Shaw is thrown out as it falls to the ground. Lin describes him as "an antagonist that's worthy of Dominic Toretto" and "that had the opposite philosophy to Dom. Dom often goes with trusting his gut, whereas Shaw is more about the analytics where there is no room for weakness."
In Furious 7, it is revealed that Shaw survived his injuries from Fast & Furious 6 but is still in a coma. In The Fate of the Furious, Shaw is shown to have fully recovered, and is shown aiding his older brother in saving Dominic's baby son from the terrorist and his former superior Cipher. Shaw is portrayed by Luke Evans. Originally the role was earmarked for Jason Statham, who would later join the franchise in the sequel as Hattie and Owen's older brother Deckard Shaw, making him the middle child.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7 (cameo)
The Fate of the Furious
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (flashbacks)
Cars driven
Flip Car (One-seated, open-wheeled sports car similar to a cross of a dune buggy and a Formula car), sixth film
2005 Aston Martin DB9, sixth film
2013 Mercedes-Benz G-Class, sixth film
Agent Riley Hicks
Riley Hicks was a member of Hobbs' team, presumably helping him and Dom's team try to take down Shaw and his team of mercenaries. However unbeknownst to them, she is actually a double agent that secretly helps Shaw and the others escape custody. Near the end of the film, Dominic's team and Hobbs discover Riley's true allegiance to Shaw as his second-in-command and lover. She engages in a second fight with Letty aboard the cargo plane and is eventually killed after Letty shoots her out of the plane using a harpoon gun given to her by Hobbs himself. Riley is portrayed by Gina Carano.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Vegh
Vegh is a female assassin in Shaw's team. She is his right-hand woman and one of the two drivers for the flip cars. She and Klaus both play an important role in kidnapping Mia. Vegh is killed by Brian by having her crash her car into an airline bumper. She is portrayed by Clara Paget.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Cars driven
Flip Car (Three-seated, open-wheeled sports car similar to a dune buggy), sixth film
Klaus
Klaus is a body builder and the strongman in Shaw's team, but also a hacker with ease, disabling Tej and Roman cars. He is the one who kidnapped Mia as leverage so Shaw could be freed. He is knocked out by Dom and Hobbs during a fight aboard the cargo plane and is killed in the plane's fiery crash. Klaus is portrayed by Kim Kold.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Jah
Jah is a cold blooded killer in Shaw's team who uses his martial arts and parkour to battle both Han and Roman, beating them up with ease. He is killed along with Denlinger when Tej rams their vehicle into the cargo plane's crosswind. Jah is portrayed by Joe Taslim.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Cars driven
2007 Range Rover, sixth film
Denlinger
Denlinger is a member of Shaw's crew, acting mainly as driver and he is a jeep support during the tank heist. He is killed along with Jah when Tej rams their vehicle into the cargo plane's crosswind. Denlinger is portrayed by Samuel M. Stewart.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Adolfson
Adolfson is a member of Shaw's team, acting as sniper and infiltrator. He dies after Han throws him into one of the cargo plane's jet engines, after Gisele sacrifices herself to stop him from hurting Han. Adolfson is portrayed by Benjamin Davies.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Cars driven
2007 Range Rover, sixth film
Oakes
Oakes is a former member of Shaw's team, who is captured by Interpol. Hobbs came to confront him in the Interpol interrogation room. Oakes defiantly refuses to cooperate, which results in him getting badly beaten up and left in a trashed out interrogation room by Hobbs. He is killed by Shaw in London for betraying him, giving him a bag with a bomb inside it. Oakes is portrayed by Matthew Stirling.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Ivory
Ivory is a member of Shaw's team. During a shootout at one of Shaw's hideouts, Ivory attempts to flee on motorcycle, but is shot dead by Gisele. Ivory is portrayed by David Ajala.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Firuz
Firuz is a mechanic in London, who provides Shaw's team with the flips cars and the harpoon guns. He is killed when Ivory and Jah shoot up his garage in an attempt to kill Gisele and Riley. Firuz is portrayed by Thure Lindhardt.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
Mose Jakande
Mose Jakande was a Nigerian born terrorist who led a Private Military Base that allies to Shaw. He is powerful and violent with no allegiance to anyone. He wants the hacker known as "Ramsey", who has created a device called God's Eye, which can find anyone on Earth, for use as a personal toy. He teams up with Deckard Shaw in order to take on Dominic and his team after they rescue Ramsey from his henchmen, but soon turns on Shaw when faced with a chance to take out Toretto during a fight between the two men on top of a car park. He is killed in the ending climactic scene after Dom plants Deckard Shaw's bag of grenades on his helicopter, which Hobbs shoots, destroying the helicopter with Jakande still inside. In The Fate of the Furious it was revealed Jakande was working for Cipher for information on Toretto. Mose Jakande is portrayed by Djimon Hounsou.
Film appearances
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious (photo)
Louis Kiet
Louis Kiet is Jakande's henchman. A powerful martial artist, he fights Brian when the latter's team tries to hijack the convoy in the mountains, and defeats him, leaving him and the bus to fall over a steep cliff. He later encounters Brian, but is killed when Brian knocks a reeling piece attached to a rope wrapped on his feet, which pulls him down a shaft to his death. Kiet is portrayed by martial artist and stunt coordinator Tony Jaa.
Film appearances
Furious 7
Kara
Kara is the leader of an all-female bodyguard team protecting a billionaire Jordanian prince. During a party at Abu Dhabi, she fights Letty one-on-one, but is knocked out long enough for Letty to escape with Roman. Kara is portrayed by former UFC Fighter and current professional wrestler Ronda Rousey.
Film appearances
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
Cipher
Cipher is a criminal mastermind and cyberterrorist who blackmails Dom into working against his allies by kidnapping Dom's son and Elena. It is revealed that she was the one who hired Owen Shaw to steal the Nightshade device after his brother Deckard Shaw refused to do the work himself and she also hired Mose Jakande to steal the God's Eye. She plans to hijack a Russian nuclear submarine and then fire one of its missiles into the air, claiming that by doing this, she will gain control over the world's superpowers. She survives by jumping out of a flying plane before Deckard can kill her, though her plans are foiled by Dom and his crew, and Dom's son is saved by Deckard. It is mentioned at the end by Mr. Nobody that Cipher is still at large and is rumored to be hiding in Athens, though thanks to Dom and his crew, she won't have the power to nuke any cities anytime soon. Cipher returns in the ninth film as the secondary antagonist, where it is revealed that she had been arrested by Mr. Nobody and his forces, though rogue agents rescue her. She is later captured by Dom's younger brother Jakob and his personal associate Otto, and after failing to sway Jakob to work with her as he "doesn't work for the competition," gives them the location of the final piece of Project Aries, a device that can hack into any computer weapons system. However, Otto and Cipher form a secret alliance and begin working together. During the final battle, Cipher escapes in defeat one more time after the final battle when Dom causes a truck to crash into the computer simulated drone/magnetic F-22 Raptor jet intended to kill Dom, causing it to not only burst into flames, but also accidentally killing Otto in the process. Cipher is portrayed by Charlize Theron. Although she's the main villain of the eighth film and the rest of the franchise, she was revealed as the behind the scenes mastermind of the sixth and seventh films, having hired and used Owen Shaw and Mose Jakande as pawns to succeed in her goals, making her the entire franchise’s overarching antagonist.
Film appearances
The Fate of the Furious
F9
Vehicles driven
computer-simulated F-22 Raptor with magnetic, ninth film
Connor Rhodes
Connor Rhodes is the ruthless right-hand man and second-in-command of Cipher. Cipher lets him kill Elena after Dom defied her during the heist in New York. When Rhodes tries to shoot Letty from afar, Dom rebels against Cipher and kills him by breaking his neck, stating this was for Elena. Connor Rhodes portrayed by Kristofer Hivju.
Film appearances
The Fate of the Furious
Cars driven
2011 Toyota FJ Cruiser, eighth film
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Brixton Lore
Brixton Lore is a cyber-genetically enhanced terrorist working for the organization Eteon. He was previously a field agent with MI6 and a colleague of Deckard until he was approached by Eteon. Brixton attempted to recruit Deckard into the terrorist organization, which led to Deckard shooting him, but he survived with Eteon's aid. He is assigned by Eteon to secure the Snowflake virus and nearly wipes out an MI6 team attempting to retrieve it, but one agent, Hattie, survives, and injects herself with the virus before escaping. In pursuing Hattie, Brixton comes into conflict again with Deckard, as well as Hobbs, as the unlikely allies look to prevent Eteon from acquiring Snowflake. He ultimately engages Hobbs and Shaw in a fight, which ends with Hobbs and Deckard overpowering him. Following his defeat, he is remotely terminated by Eteon's director. Brixton is portrayed by Idris Elba.
Film appearances
Hobbs & Shaw
F9
Otto
Otto is the son of a prime minister, a rogue covert operative who was working with Jakob Toretto (to lead his private army) and Cipher to steal Project Aries. Otto regroups back at his base of operations and recruits Cipher. Otto compromises the safe house and frees Jakob, while Jakob reveals that he was the one that betrayed Mr. Nobody. Jakob & Otto then kidnap Elle & take the second part of project Aries.
Otto has a satellite launch into Orbit, while Jakob has Elle activate the Aries device, as they wait for the satellite to activate, as they’re moving throughout Tbilisi in an armored Mercedes-Benz Unimog (aka The Armadillo), Dom, Letty, Mia, Ramsey & Han give chase and try to rescue Elle and stop them from uploading the satellite uplink and double crosses Jakob as he is now working with Cipher, but he is accidentally killed by her, who is flying a computer simulator jet to attack the team. Otto is portrayed by Thue Ersted Rasmussen.
Film appearances
F9
Cars driven
2019 Jaguar XE SV Project 8, ninth film
Lieutenant Sue
Lieutenant Sue is a brutish enforcer and the right-hand man of Otto who served as the field commander of Otto's private army. He is killed by Letty. Lieutenant Sue is portrayed by Martyn Ford.
Film appearances
F9
Law enforcement officials and federal agents
The Fast and the Furious
Agent Bilkins
Bilkins is an FBI agent who was seen in The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious. He is Brian's former boss while he was in the LAPD. Bilkins is shown to have doubts about Brian in The Fast and the Furious. He also complained at Brian's car being destroyed at the hands of Johnny Tran and Lance Nguyen. In 2 Fast 2 Furious, Bilkins showed more sympathy towards Brian than Markham. When he came to Barstow with Brian, Bilkins manages to convince Roman to help Customs catch Verone in exchange of their criminal record being cleaned. Bilkins is portrayed by Thom Barry.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
Cars driven
1998 Mercury Grand Marquis (second film)
Sergeant Tanner
Tanner is an LAPD officer in charge of the undercover operation in The Fast and the Furious, which Brian is assigned to solve. He serves as a father figure to Brian during the operation. He also financed $80,000 to buy Brian's car for the mission, which was destroyed by Johnny Tran and Lance Nguyen. Tanner is portrayed by Ted Levine.
Film appearances
The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
Agent Markham
Markham is a U.S. Customs agent responsible for taking down drug kingpin Carter Verone in 2 Fast 2 Furious. Markham initially opposes the inclusion of Brian and his partner Roman Pearce in the undercover sting operation. During the film, Markham shows no trust in Brian and Roman to the point of nearly blowing their cover during the first part of their mission. However, the duo gain his trust after stopping Verone from fleeing the country. Markham is portrayed by James Remar.
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Cars driven
1995 Ford Crown Victoria Undercover Police Car
Monica Fuentes
Agent Monica Fuentes is a U.S. Customs (ICE) federal agent. Monica has been working undercover as an assistant for drug kingpin Carter Verone for nearly a year when Brian and Roman are brought in. She falls in love with Brian, but earns Roman's mistrust. Monica later warns Brian that after the mission Verone has assigned them, he intends to kill them. She blows her cover by telling Brian about the airstrip, being the only person Verone notified about it. She is then taken captive aboard his private yacht, but Brian and Roman jump their Camaro onto the boat, saving Monica and capturing Verone. In the mid-credits scene of Fast Five, Hobbs receives a file from Monica regarding a robbery, in which Letty's photograph is attached, revealing that she is still alive, and is involved with the military convoy robbery in Berlin. Monica is portrayed by Eva Mendes.
Film appearances
2 Fast 2 Furious
Fast Five (cameo)
Fast & Furious
Agent Penning
Penning is a Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) for the FBI field office in Los Angeles, California. He is Brian's supervisor and one of the leaders of the team of federal agents looking to take down drug lord Arturo Braga. Penning is portrayed Jack Conley.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious
Agent Sophie Trinh
Sophie Trinh is an FBI agent who assists Brian in tracking down Braga. She also helps him acquire a Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 SpecV from a local impound for his mission. Sophie is portrayed by Liza Lapira.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious
Agent Michael Stasiak
Michael Stasiak is an FBI agent who is at odds with Brian. During an altercation over Brian interrupting Stasiak's interrogation of Mia, Brian shoves Stasiak's face against the wall, breaking his nose. He returns in Fast & Furious 6, where he covertly helps Brian enter a prison to obtain information from convicted drug lord Arturo Braga. As a means to get himself locked in solitary to get closer to Braga, Brian once again breaks Stasiak's nose. Stasiak reappears in F9, still sporting his broken nose while debriefing Toretto's team after their failed mission in Montequinto. Stasiak is portrayed by Shea Whigham.
Film appearances
Fast & Furious
Fast & Furious 6
F9
Cars driven
1998 Ford Crown Victoria Undercover Police Car (sixth film)
Fast Five
Elena Neves
Officer Elena Neves was a member of the Rio military police (PMERJ) assigned to Hobbs' DSS team to track down Dom and Brian for killing three DEA agents. She was chosen because of her knowledge of the favelas and the fact that she was the only incorruptible officer. Her police officer husband's death had motivated her to join the force, preventing her from being bribed by Reyes like the rest of the police.
When Dom saved her from a shootout in the favelas orchestrated by Reyes to prevent the theft of his drug money, she starts to believe they are innocent of killing the DEA agents. Elena later assisted Hobbs in aiding Dom and Brian in stealing Hernan Reyes's cash supply and started a relationship with Dom after the job was done. Upon discovering that Dom's wife, Letty, was still alive and currently working for Owen Shaw, Elena encouraged Dom to find her by joining Hobbs. She assisted Mia when Shaw's crew attacked them and took care of Jack during Mia's kidnapping.
After Letty was successfully convinced to rejoin Dom, Elena joined the DSS as Hobbs' new partner to let the couple live together. Elena was present at the DSS HQ to check on Hobbs, and as she headed home, Hobbs gave her a letter of recommendation for her request to join Interpol. When Deckard Shaw breaks into the HQ to hack Hobbs's computer to find out who crippled his brother, she assisted Hobbs in attempt to bring him. Hobbs is left injured, so Elena informs Dom to visit him as she takes care of Hobbs's daughter, Samantha.
She was later kidnapped by Cipher in order to blackmail Dom into abandoning his family and retrieve nuclear launch codes, after it was revealed that Dom had fathered a child with Elena in Letty's absence. After Dom fails to retrieve the launch codes from Letty after an encounter in New York City, Cipher lets her right-hand man and second-in-command, Connor Rhodes execute Elena by shooting her in the head in cold blood. Dom later avenges Elena's death by killing Rhodes by breaking his neck and promises to her that their son will always be safe. She is a main character in Fast Five and a supporting character in Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious. She is also mentioned twice in F9 (though not by name) - first when Roman tries to convince Dom to join them in their search for the main device of Project Aries and Cipher, incorrectly reminding him that it was Cipher who had killed her; and next in the final scene when Letty tells Dom and Elena's now-toddler son, Brian Marcos, that his mother will always be watching over him from heaven.
Despite the fact she was a Rio police officer, she didn't work for the regular Rio de Janeiro police department because they were owned by the corrupt businessman and drug lord Hernán Reyes, shown by the fact that she takes out one of the officers in the climax of the movie. Elena is portrayed by Elsa Pataky.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
Cars driven
GURKHA Armored Vehicle, fifth film
Ford Escape, seventh film
Wilkes
Wilkes was a DSS federal agent. He was on Luke Hobbs' team whose job was to capture Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner in Fast Five. After apprehending Dom, Brian, Mia and Vince, the convoy is ambushed by Hernan Reyes' henchmen, led by Zizi. One of them fires a rocket at Wilkes' vehicle, killing him and Macroy; every DSS agent is taken out with the exception of Hobbs. Agent Wilkes is portrayed by Fernando Chien.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Cars driven
GURKHA Armored Vehicle, fifth film
Macroy
Macroy was a DSS federal agent and a part of Luke Hobbs' team tasked with apprehending Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner. He was also tasked with reassembling a Ford GT40. He met his end when Zizi along with Reyes' other henchmen killed him in an ambush by blowing up Wilkes' vehicle. The other agents were gunned down as well, Hobbs being the only DSS agent to survive. Agent Macroy is portrayed by Geoff Meed.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Fusco
Fusco was a DSS federal agent and member of Luke Hobbs' team and helps disassemble and consequently reassemble the stolen car in the hope of finding what is missing and finding a lead on the whereabouts of Dominic and his team. Fusco is present during the subsequent chase and kills Reyes' hit men alongside his fellow agents. He accompanies Hobbs to the 'meeting' with Toretto and after being threatened by Dom's fellow Brazilian street racers he and the team leave, but not before Tej places a tracking device on the agents' truck. After the tracking signal is reversed Fusco and the rest of Hobbs team turn up at the garage to arrest Dom, Mia, Brian and Vince.
On their way to the airport, however, they were suddenly ambushed by Reyes men, led by Zizi. One of them fires a rocket-propelled projectile at Fusco's vehicle, sending it hurling off the road. As he lies injured, three grenades are suddenly thrown aside him as Hobbs watches on helplessly. He casts a final glance at his boss before they explode, killing him in the blast. Agent Fusco is portrayed by Alimi Ballard.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Cars driven
GURKHA Armored Vehicle, fifth film
Chato
Chato was a DSS federal agent. He was a member of Luke Hobbs' team, tasked with capturing Dominic Toretto and his crew. He was killed during an ambush by Zizi and his men when he was rushing to help a wounded Hobbs. Agent Chato is portrayed by Yorgo Constantine.
Film appearances
Fast Five
Cars driven
GURKHA Armored Vehicle, fifth film
Furious 7
Mr. Nobody
Mr. Nobody is a government agent and the leader of an unknown covert ops team wanting to capture Mose Jakande, a mercenary coveting the God's Eye, a program capable of tracking a specific individual using anything on a digital network. He approaches and convinces Dom to assist him in collecting the God's Eye and rescuing its creator, Ramsey, in return for using the program to locate Deckard Shaw. He assembles Dom's crew upon the latter's agreement on the deal. While fighting Deckard and Jakande along with his mercenaries, he is shot by Kiet but tells Dom to move on without him and stop Jakande and Deckard while he is evacuated for medical treatment. He is referenced in Hobbs & Shaw when CIA Agent Leob informs Shaw that Mr. Nobody is a mutual associate of theirs when requesting Shaw's aid in finding a missing rogue MI6 agent. In F9, It was revealed that Mr Nobody saved Han Seoul-Oh from the crash which was caused by Deckard Shaw in Tokyo. After the last film, Mr Nobody arrested Cipher on his plane and also kept a program called Project Aries. But he was attacked by Jakob Toretto in the ambush and the plane crashed to an unknown location. It is unknown that if he survived or killed in the crash. Mr. Nobody is portrayed by Kurt Russell. Originally referred to as Frank Petty several weeks before the premiere, he was later noted to just be Mr. Nobody when Russell interviewed on Jimmy Kimmel Live. His real name is unknown.
Film appearances
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
F9
Agent Sheppard
Sheppard is Mr. Nobody's assistant and a tactical leader and member of his covert ops team. He was first seen when they attempt to attack Deckard causing him to flee and believe Dom is actually a criminal causing Dom to put him on chokehold, but Mr. Nobody stops him when they see Dom as an ally, leaving him passed out and later helps plan out Dom and his crew for their rescue of Ramsey and also participates in the infiltration to capture Deckard Shaw. Sheppard is killed by Mose Jakande during a shootout, leaving the God's Eye to be taken by Jakande. Mr. Nobody avenges his death by killing several of Jakande's men, although Hobbs would be the one who truly avenges Sheppard's death by killing Jakande himself in the film's climax. Sheppard is portrayed by John Brotherton.
Film appearances
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
Little Nobody
Eric Reisner is a law enforcement agent working under Mr. Nobody. In the film he is referred to as "Little Nobody". He first visited Luke Hobbs along with Mr. Nobody at the jail Luke was being imprisoned. They had a brief fight which was later reassured by Mr. Nobody. When Dom's team is reunited after his betrayal, Eric is in charge of introducing Cipher about how dangerous she was in addition to revealing that she uses Owen Shaw, but then they are attacked by Dom and Cipher, once recovered a plan to capture Dom in which Eric takes them to a secret base where several vehicles of agencies are guarded, during the plan and persecution of Toretto, his car was trapped after crashing against bars from a construction site.
When seeing the failed plan to catch Dom is planned to make a final assault to the Russian base where is a Nuclear Submarine which Cipher plans to use, Little Nobody after not getting carried away and being attached to the rules decides to move away from them and allow Dom's team to use his own rules so he sticks to them and head towards to the Russian base.
Once there they watch the facilities await the arrival of Dom to intercept it to finally catch it to which time later this one is revealed towards Cipher and begins the persecution on the ice against the submarine of Cipher to which it is finally destroyed by Dom and the equipment protects of its explosion.
When Dom's son is brought in by Deckard, Mr. Nobody and Little Nobody appear to congratulate them and offer Hobbs an opportunity to return to work for the law to which this time Little Nobody treats him with more respect and friendship. He does not appear in F9 and is presumed that he is still alive in the universe somewhere. He is portrayed by Scott Eastwood.
Film appearances
The Fate of the Furious
Cars driven
2013 Subaru BRZ, eighth film
2016 Subaru WRX STI, eighth film
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Hattie Shaw
Hattie Shaw is an MI6 field agent, daughter of Queenie and younger sister of Deckard and Owen. She was close to her brother Deckard when they were children, but they became estranged when Hattie was falsely led to believe that Deckard betrayed his black ops team. During a mission to retrieve the Snowflake virus from the terrorist organization Eteon, Hattie is forced to inject herself with the virus and go on the run when her team is massacred by genetically-enhanced Eteon operative Brixton Lore. Her efforts to extract the virus from her body leads to her joining forces with Hobbs and Shaw as they work together to evade Brixton and prevent Eteon from obtaining Snowflake. With help from Hobbs and Shaw, she is able to remove the virus and secure it as the three defeat Brixton. She also repairs her relationship with her brother when she learns he was set up and begins to form a romantic bond with Hobbs. Hattie Shaw is portrayed by Vanessa Kirby.
Film appearances
Hobbs & Shaw
Cars driven
MAN KAT1, Hobbs & Shaw
References
Documents
Fictional government agents
Fictional mechanics
Fictional outlaws |
16525370 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamware%20%28company%29 | Creamware (company) | Creamware Audio GmbH (typically styled as creamw@re) was a manufacturer of DSP-based sound cards and synthesizers in Siegburg. These cards are used to create synthesized sounds for audio production in music and other audio environments. The company was founded in 1992 and operated until 2006. In 2007, the company 'Sonic Core' purchased certain Creamware assets and intellectual property.
Creamware also developed several digital audio software/hardware combination systems that became popular with radio broadcasters throughout the late 1990s. These systems included 'TripleDAT' and a scaled-down version called 'CutMaster'. Both versions were widely used by German and Canadian commercial radio stations, and state owned Chinese radio stations. About 200 systems were also shipped to Australia, where they were used by government, commercial and public access/community stations. Stations used the software for the production of commercial/sponsorship advertising, audio (radio) documentary, and occasionally, for the production of actual full-length produced (pre-recorded) radio shows.
History
The hardware Creamware created was among the first linearly scalable DSP systems, with expansion DSP boards being offered to increase the processing power of the platform. As a real time DSP platform, there was no processing (waiting) time for changes to take effect.
The software made by Creamware offered better visual handling of audio 'samples', sometimes called 'clips' or 'items' in similar software. A user could easily drag samples up and down virtual digital multi-tracks in a window called the 'arranger'. Zooming functions allowed users to zoom-in on fine wave form detail, then easily return to a position where the user could gain a complete overview of their work.
Acquisition by Sonic Core
After several long periods of financial trouble, the company was finally taken over and reorganized by Sonic Core. Sonic Core have acquired all Creamware hardware technology and a former Creamware engineer acquired the software code (for products such as TripleDAT), establishing a new development company in India.
Products
Elektra
Minimax ASB
B4000 ASB
Noah
PowerSampler
Pro-12 ASB
Prodyssey ASB
Pulsar
Pulsar II
TripleDAT / CutMaster / EasyCut (Variations of the standard Creamware Digital Audio Workstation environment)
Modular
Modular III was a modular synthesizer running on DSPs (digital signal processors, a type of computer chip designed for signal processing), as part of the software environment provided for the Creamware 'Scope' line of sound cards. It had modules covering many aspects of sound synthesis, designed by Creamware Audio GmbH and by other designers. The software can be run on a PC (Windows or Mac) (before Mac OS X) using a Creamware Scope Soundcard.
The Creamware Modular Synthesizer has gone through a number of revisions, each adding more modules and greater functionality. The first version was more or less a 'pure' recreation of a traditional hardware modular synth. The later revisions (versions 2 and 3) took greater advantage of the fact that a software implementation can have elements not available to in hardware, such as the ability to provide bespoke user interfaces, and also added a number of new modules with each release. Several third-party developers also created modules for Version 2 and 3 of the software, and hundreds of modules total are available.
Sonic Core currently offer the product as Scope Modular IV.
See also
Stockert Radio Telescope
References
External links
Archive of Creamware FTP server
Creators of Flexor, high-end 3rd party modules for the Creamware modular
High-end 3rd party modules for Creamware systems
Devoted to the Creamware modular
Dedicated to the Creamware Modular Synthesizer
Technology companies established in 1992
Software synthesizers
Modular synthesizers |
30747 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80 | TRS-80 | The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of Tandy Radio Shack, Z80 [microprocessor]. It is one of the earliest mass-produced and mass-marketed retail home computers.
The TRS-80 has a full-stroke QWERTY keyboard, the Zilog Z80 processor, 4 KB DRAM standard memory, small size and desk footprint, floating-point Level I BASIC language interpreter in ROM, 64-character per line video monitor, and a starting price of US$600 (equivalent to US$ in ). A cassette tape drive for program storage was included in the original package.
While the software environment was stable, the cassette load/save process combined with keyboard bounce issues and a troublesome expansion interface contributed to the Model I's reputation as not well-suited to serious use. It lacked support for lowercase characters, which also hampered business adoption.
An extensive line of upgrades and add-on hardware peripherals for the TRS-80 was developed and marketed by Tandy/Radio Shack. The basic system can be expanded with up to 48 KB of RAM (in 16 KB increments), and up to four floppy disk drives and/or hard disk drives. Tandy/Radio Shack provided full-service support including upgrade, repair, and training services in their thousands of stores worldwide.
By 1979, the TRS-80 had the largest selection of software in the microcomputer market. Until 1982, the TRS-80 was the best-selling PC line, outselling the Apple II series by a factor of five according to one analysis.
In mid-1980, the broadly compatible TRS-80 Model III was released. The Model I was discontinued shortly thereafter, primarily due to stricter FCC regulations on radio-frequency interference to nearby electronic devices. In April 1983, the Model III was succeeded by the compatible TRS-80 Model 4.
Following the original Model I and its compatible descendants, the TRS-80 name became a generic brand used on other unrelated computer lines sold by Tandy, including the TRS-80 Model II, TRS-80 Model 2000, TRS-80 Model 100, TRS-80 Color Computer, and TRS-80 Pocket Computer.
History
Development
In the mid-1970s, Tandy Corporation's Radio Shack division was a successful American chain of more than 3,000 electronics stores. Among the Tandy employees who purchased a MITS Altair kit computer was buyer Don French, who began designing his own computer and showed it to vice president of manufacturing John Roach, Tandy's former electronic data processing manager. Although the design did not impress Roach, the idea of selling a microcomputer did. When the two men visited National Semiconductor in California in mid-1976, Homebrew Computer Club member Steve Leininger's expertise on the SC/MP microprocessor impressed them. National executives refused to provide Leininger's contact information when French and Roach wanted to hire him as a consultant, but they found Leininger working part-time at Byte Shop. Leininger was unhappy at National, his wife wanted a better job, and Texas did not have a state income tax. Hired for his technical and retail experience, Leininger began working with French in June 1976. The company envisioned a kit, but Leininger persuaded the others that because "too many people can't solder", a preassembled computer would be better.
Tandy had 11 million customers that might buy a microcomputer, but it would be much more expensive than the median price of a Radio Shack product, and a great risk for the very conservative company. Executives feared losing money as Sears did with Cartrivision, and many opposed the project; one executive told French, "Don't waste my time—we can't sell computers." As the popularity of CB radio—at one point comprising more than 20% of Radio Shack's sales—declined, however, the company sought new products. In December 1976 French and Leininger received official approval for the project but were told to emphasize cost savings; for example, leaving out lowercase characters saved US$1.50 in components and reduced the retail price by . The original retail price required manufacturing cost of ; the first design had a membrane keyboard and no video monitor. Leininger persuaded Roach and French to include a better keyboard; it, a monitor, datacassette storage, and other features required a higher retail price to provide Tandy's typical profit margin. In February 1977 they showed their prototype, running a simple tax-accounting program, to Charles Tandy, head of Tandy Corporation. The program quickly crashed as the computer's implementation of Tiny BASIC could not handle the figure that Tandy typed in as his salary, and the two men added support for floating-point math to its Level I BASIC to prevent a recurrence. The project was formally approved on 2 February 1977; Tandy revealed that he had already leaked the computer's existence to the press. When first inspecting the prototype, he remarked that even if it did not sell, the project could be worthy if only for the publicity it might generate.
MITS sold 1,000 Altairs in February 1975, and was selling 10,000 a year. When Charles Tandy asked who would buy the computer, company president Lewis Kornfeld admitted that they did not know if anyone would, but suggested that small businesses and schools might. Knowing that demand was very strong for the Altair—which cost more than $1,000 with a monitor—Leininger suggested that Radio Shack could sell 50,000 computers, but no one else believed him; Roach called the figure "horseshit", as the company had never sold that many of anything at that price. Roach and Kornfeld suggested 1,000 to 3,000 per year; 3,000 was the quantity the company would have to produce to buy the components in bulk. Roach persuaded Tandy to agree to build 3,500—the number of Radio Shack stores—so that each store could use a computer for inventory purposes if they did not sell. RCA agreed to supply the video monitor—a black-and-white television with the tuner and speakers removed—after others refused because of Tandy's low initial volume of production. Tandy used the black-and-silver colors of the RCA CRT unit's cabinet for the TRS-80 units also.
Announcement
Having spent less than on development, Radio Shack announced the TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack) at a New York City press conference on August 3, 1977. It cost ($ today), or ($ today) with a 12" monitor and a Radio Shack tape recorder; the most expensive product Radio Shack previously sold was a stereo. The company hoped that the new computer would help Radio Shack sell higher-priced products, and improve its "schlocky" image among customers. Small businesses were the primary target market, followed by educators, then consumers and hobbyists; despite its hobbyist customer base, Radio Shack saw them as "not the mainstream of the business" and "never our large market".
Although the press conference did not receive much media attention because of a terrorist bombing elsewhere in the city, the computer received much more publicity at Boston University's Personal Computer Fair two days later. A front-page Associated Press article discussed the novelty of a large consumer-electronics company selling a home computer that could "do a payroll for up to 15 people in a small business, teach children mathematics, store your favorite recipes or keep track of an investment portfolio. It can also play cards". Six sacks of mail arrived at Tandy headquarters asking about the computer, over 15,000 people called to purchase a TRS-80—paralyzing the company switchboard—and 250,000 joined the waiting list with a $100 deposit.
Despite the internal skepticism, Radio Shack aggressively entered the market. The company advertised "The $599 personal computer" as "the most important, useful, exciting, electronic product of our time". Kornfeld stated when announcing the TRS-80, "This device is inevitably in the future of everyone in the civilized world—in some way—now and so far as ahead as one can think", and Tandy's 1977 annual report called the computer "probably the most important product we've ever built in a company factory". Unlike competitor Commodore—which had announced the PET several months earlier but had not yet shipped any—Tandy had its own factories (capable of producing 18,000 computers a month) and distribution network, and even small towns had Radio Shack stores. The company announced plans to be selling by Christmas a range of peripherals and software for the TRS-80, began shipping computers by September, opened its first computer-only store in October, and delivered 5,000 computers to customers by December. Still forecasting 3,000 sales a year, Radio Shack sold over 10,000 TRS-80s in its first one and a half months of sales, 55,000 in its first year, and over 200,000 during the product's lifetime; one entered the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. By mid-1978 the waits of two months or more for delivery were over, and the company could state in advertisements that TRS-80 was "on demonstration and available from stock now at every Radio Shack store in this community!".
Delivery
The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with hobbyists, home users, and small-businesses. Tandy Corporation's leading position in what Byte magazine called the "1977 Trinity" (Apple, Commodore, and Tandy) had much to do with Tandy's retailing the computer through more than 3,000 of its Radio Shack storefronts in the USA. Tandy claimed it had "7000 [Radio Shack] stores in 40 countries". The pre-release price for the basic system (CPU/keyboard and video monitor) was US$500 and a US$50 deposit was required, with a money-back guarantee at time of delivery.
By 1978, Tandy/Radio Shack promoted itself as "The Biggest Name in Little Computers". By 1979 1,600 employees built computers in six factories. Kilobaud Microcomputing estimated in 1980 that Tandy was selling three times as many computers as Apple Computer, with both companies ahead of Commodore. By 1981, InfoWorld described Radio Shack as "the dominant supplier of small computers". Hundreds of small companies produced TRS-80 software and accessories, and Adam Osborne described Tandy as "the number-one microcomputer manufacturer" despite having "so few roots in microcomputing". That year Leininger left his job as director for advanced research; French had left to found a software company, while Roach became Tandy's CEO. Selling computers did not change the company's "schlocky" image; the Radio Shack name embarrassed business customers, and Tandy executives disliked the "Trash-80" nickname for its products. By 1984, computers accounted for 35% of sales, however, and the company had 500 Tandy Radio Shack Computer Centers.
Model II and III
By 1979, when Radio Shack launched the business-oriented, and incompatible, TRS-80 Model II, the TRS-80 was officially renamed the TRS-80 Model I, in order to distinguish the two product lines.
After some exhibitors at the 1979 Northeast Computer Show were forced to clarify that their products bearing the TRS-80 name were not affiliated with Radio Shack, publications and advertisers briefly began to use "S-80" generically rather than "TRS-80" under scare of legal action, though this never materialized.
Following the Model III launch in mid-1980, Tandy stated that the Model I was still sold, but it was discontinued by the end of the year. Tandy cited one of the main reasons as being the prohibitive cost of redesigning it to meet stricter FCC regulations covering the significant levels of radio-frequency interference emitted by the original design. The Model I radiated so much interference that, while playing games, an AM radio placed next to the computer could be used to provide sounds. Radio Shack offered upgrades (double density floppy controller, LDOS, memory, reliable keyboard with numeric keypad, lowercase, Level II, RS-232C) as late as 1985.
Hardware
The Model I combines the mainboard and keyboard into one unit, which became a design trend in the 8-bit microcomputer era, although the Model I has a separate power supply unit. It uses a Zilog Z80 processor clocked at 1.78 MHz (later models shipped with a Z80A). The initial Level I machines shipped in late 1977-early 1978 have only 4k of RAM. After the Expansion Interface and Level II BASIC were introduced in mid-1978, RAM configurations of 16k and up were offered (the first 16k was in the Model I itself and the remaining RAM in the EI).
The OS ROMs, I/O area, video memory and OS work space occupy the first 16 kB of memory space on the Model I. The remaining 48 kB of the 64 kB memory map space is available for program use, subject to the amount of physical RAM installed. Although the Z80 CPU can use port-based I/O, the Model I's I/O is memory-mapped aside from the cassette tape and RS-232 serial ports.
Keyboard
The TRS-80 Model I keyboard uses mechanical switches that suffer from "keyboard bounce", resulting in multiple letters being typed per keystroke. The problem was described in Wayne Green's editorial in the first issue of 80 Micro. Dirt, cigarette smoke, or other contamination enters the unsealed key switches, causing electrical noise that the computer detects as multiple presses. The key switches can be cleaned, but the bounce recurs when the keyboard is reexposed to the contaminating environment.
Keyboard bounce only occurs in Model I computers with Level II BASIC firmware; Level I BASIC has a "debounce" delay to the keyboard driver to avoid the noisy switch contacts. Tandy's utility, the Model III, the last Model I firmware, and most third-party operating systems also implement the software fix, and Tandy changed the keyboard during the Model III's lifetime to an Alps Electric design with sealed switches. The Alps keyboard was available as an upgrade for the Model I for $79.
The keyboard is memory mapped so that certain locations in the processor's memory space correspond to the status of a group of keys.
Video and audio
The color of the 12" KCS 172 RCA monitor's text is faintly blue (the standard P4 phosphor used in black-and white televisions). Green and amber filters, or replacement tubes to reduce eye fatigue were popular aftermarket items. Later models came with a green-on-black display.
Complaints about the video display quality were common. As Green wrote, "hells bells, [the monitor] is a cheap black and white television set with a bit of conversion for computer use". (The computer could be purchased without the Radio Shack monitor.) CPU access to the screen memory causes visible flicker. The bus arbitration logic blocks video display refresh (video RAM reads) during CPU writes to the VRAM, causing a short black line. This has little effect on normal BASIC programs, but fast programs made with assembly language can be affected. Software authors worked to minimize the effect, and many arcade-style games are available for the Tandy TRS-80.
Because of bandwidth problems in the interface card that replaced the TV's tuner, the display loses horizontal sync if large areas of white are displayed. A simple half-hour hardware fix corrects the problem.
The graphics are displayed at a resolution of 64×16 character positions on a screen measuring wide and tall. Each character is composed of a 2×3 matrix of pixels, and corresponds to one byte of the 1-KB video memory used by the TRS-80. In each of those bytes, the first six bits control which pixel is displayed. The seventh bit is ignored, and the eighth toggles graphics mode. The reason that the seventh bit is ignored is due to the company's decision to have only seven 2102 static RAM chips installed on the computer's motherboard instead of eight to keep the manufacturing cost low. Thus, there are no lowercase letters in the TRS-80 character set of an unmodified Model I, and the number of both graphics symbols and alphanumeric symbols is 64. This can be worked around by deleting the unused bit and piggybacking an eighth 2102 chip onto another. The alphanumeric symbols are displayed in 5×7 matrices of pixels. The 1978 manual for the popular word processor Electric Pencil came with instructions for modifying the computer. Although the modification needs to be disabled for Level II BASIC, its design became the industry standard and was widely sold in kit form, along with an eighth 2102 chip. Later models came with the hardware for the lowercase character set to be displayed with descenders.
With higher density RAM chips and dedicated purpose build monitors, higher resolution crisp displays are obtainable; 80x24 character displays are available in the Model II, Model 4, and later systems.
The Model I has no built-in speaker. Square wave tones can be produced by outputting data to the cassette port and plugging an amplifier into the cassette "Mic" line. Most games use this ability for sound effects. An adapter was available to use Atari joysticks.
Peripherals
Cassette tape drive
User data was originally stored on cassette tape. Radio Shack's model CTR-41 cassette recorder was included with the US$599 package. The software-based cassette tape interface is slow and erratic; Green described it as "crummy ... drives users up the wall", and the first issue of 80 Micro has three articles on how to improve cassette performance. It is sensitive to audio volume, and the computer gives only a crude indication as to whether the correct volume was set, via a blinking character on screen while data is loaded. To find the correct volume at first use, the load is started and the volume is adjusted until the TRS-80 picked up the data. Then it is halted to rewind the tape and restart the load. Users were instructed to save multiple copies of a software program file, especially if audio tape cassettes instead of certified data tape was used. Automatic gain control or indicator circuits can be constructed to improve the loading process (the owner's manual provides complete circuit diagrams for the whole machine, including the peripheral interfaces, with notes on operation).
An alternative to using tape was data transmissions from the BBC's Chip Shop programme in the UK, which broadcast software for several different microcomputers over the radio. A special program was loaded using the conventional tape interface. Then the radio broadcast was connected to the cassette tape interface. Tandy eventually replaced the CTR-41 unit with the CTR-80 which had built-in AGC circuitry (and no volume control). This helped the situation, but tape operation is still unreliable.
TRS-80 Model I computers with Level I BASIC read and wrote tapes at 250 baud (about 30 bytes per second); Level II BASIC doubles this to 500 baud (about 60 bytes per second). Some programmers wrote machine-language programs that increases the speed to up to 2,000 bits per second without a loss of reliability on their tape recorders. With the Model III and improved electronics in the cassette interface, the standard speed increased to 1,500 baud that works quite reliably on most tape recorders.
For loading and storing data from tape, the CPU creates the sound by switching the output voltage between three states, creating crude sine wave audio.
The first version of the Model I also has a hardware problem that complicated loading programs from cassette recorders. Tandy offered a small board which was installed at a service center to correct the issue. The ROMs in later models were modified to correct this.
Model I Expansion interface
Only the Model I uses an Expansion interface; all later models have everything integrated in the same housing.
The TRS-80 does not use the S-100 bus like other early 8080 and Z80-based computers. A proprietary Expansion Interface (E/I) box, which fits under the video monitor and served as its base, was offered instead. Standard features of the E/I are a floppy disk controller, Centronics parallel port for a printer, and additional cassette connector. Optionally, an extra 16 or 32 kB of RAM can be installed and a daughterboard with an RS-232 port. The 40-conductor expansion connector passes through to a card edge connector, which permits the addition of external peripherals such as an outboard hard disk drive, a voice synthesizer, or a VOXBOX voice recognition unit.
Originally, printing with the Model I requires the expansion interface, but later Tandy made an alternative parallel printer interface available.
The Model I Expansion Interface is the most troublesome part of the TRS-80 Model I system. It went through several revisions. The E/I connects to the CPU/keyboard with a 6-inch ribbon cable which is unshielded against RF interference and its card edge connector tends to oxidize due to its base metal contacts. This demands periodic cleaning with a pencil eraser in order to avoid spontaneous reboots, which contributes to its "Trash-80" sobriquet. Aftermarket connectors plated with gold solves this problem permanently. Software developers also responded by devising a recovery method which became a standard feature of many commercial programs. They accept an "asterisk parameter", an asterisk (star) character typed following the program name when the program is run from the TRSDOS Ready prompt. When used following a spontaneous reboot (or an accidental reset, program crash, or exit to TRSDOS without saving data to disk), the program loads without initializing its data area(s), preserving any program data still present from the pre-reboot session. Thus, for example, if a VisiCalc user suffers a spontaneous reboot, to recover data the user enters at TRSDOS Ready, and Visicalc restores the previous computing session intact.
The power button on the E/I is difficult to operate as it is recessed so as to guard against the user accidentally hitting it and turning it off while in use. A pencil eraser or similar object is used to depress the power button and the E/I has no power LED, making it difficult to determine if it is running or not.
The expansion unit requires a second power supply, identical to the base unit power supply. An interior recess holds both supplies.
The user is instructed to power on and power off all peripherals in proper order to avoid corrupting data or potentially damaging hardware components. The manuals for the TRS-80 advise turning on the monitor first, then any peripherals attached to the E/I (if multiple disk drives are attached, the last drive on the chain is to be powered on first and work down from there), the E/I, and the computer last. When powering down, the computer is to be turned off first, followed by the monitor, E/I, and peripherals. In addition, users are instructed to remove all disks from the drives during power up or down (or else leave the drive door open to disengage the read/write head from the disk). This is because a transient electrical surge from the drive's read/write head would create a magnetic pulse that could corrupt data. This was a common problem on many early floppy drives.
The E/I displays a screen full of garbage characters on power up and unless a bootable system disk is present in Drive 0, it hangs there until the user either presses on the back of the computer, which causes it to attempt to boot the disk again, or was pressed, which drops the computer into BASIC. Due to the above-mentioned problems with potentially corrupting disks, it is recommended to power up to the garbage screen with the disk drives empty, insert a system disk, and then hit .
InfoWorld compared the cable spaghetti connecting the TRS-80 Model I's various components to the snakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Radio Shack offered a "TRS-80 System Desk" that concealed nearly all the cabling. It can accommodate the complete computer system plus up to four floppy drives and the Quick Printer. Since the cable connecting the expansion interface carries the system bus, it is short (about 6 inches). The user has no choice but to place the E/I directly behind the computer with the monitor on top. This causes problems for a non-Tandy monitor whose case did not fit the mounting holes. Also, the friction fit of the edge connector on the already short interconnect cable makes it possible to disconnect the system bus from the CPU if either unit is bumped during operation.
Floppy disk drives
Radio Shack introduced floppy drives in July 1978, about six months after the Model I went on sale. The Model I disk operating system TRSDOS was written by Randy Cook under license from Radio Shack; Randy claimed to have been paid $3000 for it. The first version released to the public was a buggy v2.0. This was quickly replaced by v2.1. Floppy disk operation requires buying the Expansion Interface, which included a single-density floppy disk interface (with a formatted capacity of 85k) based on the Western Digital 1771 single-density floppy disk controller chip. The industry standard Shugart Associates SA-400 minifloppy disk drive was used. Four floppy drives can be daisy-chained to the Model I. The last drive in the chain is supposed to have a termination resistor installed but often it is not needed as it is integrated into later cables.
Demand for Model I drives greatly exceeded supply at first. The drive is unreliable, partly since the interface lacked an external data separator (buffer). The early version(s) of TRSDOS are also buggy, and not helped by the Western Digital FD1771 chip that cannot reliably report its status for several instruction cycles after it receives a command. A common method of handling the delay was to issue a command to the 1771, perform several "NOP" instructions, then query the 1771 for the result. Early TRSDOS neglects the required yet undocumented wait period, and thus false status often returns to the OS, generating random errors and crashes. Once the 1771 delay was implemented, it is fairly reliable.
In 1981, Steve Ciarcia published in BYTE the design for a homemade, improved expansion interface with additional RAM and a disk controller for the TRS-80.
A data separator and a double density disk controller (based on the WD 1791 chip) were made by Percom (a Texas peripheral vendor), LNW, Tandy and others. The Percom Doubler adds the ability to boot and use Double Density floppies using a Percom-modified TRSDOS called DoubleDOS. The LNDoubler adds the ability to read and write diskette drives with up to 720KB of storage, and also the older diskettes with up to 1,155KB. Near the end of the Model I's lifespan in 1982, upgrades were offered to replace its original controller with a double density one.
The first disk drives offered on the Model I were Shugart SA-400s which supported 35 tracks and was the sole -inch drive on the market in 1977–78. By 1979, other manufacturers began offering drives. Models 3/4/4P uses Tandon TM-100 40-track drives. The combination of 40 tracks and double-density gives a capacity of 180 kilobytes per single-sided floppy disk. The use of index-sync means that a "flippy disk" requires a second index hole and write-enable notch. One could purchase factory-made "flippies". Some software publishers formatted one side for Apple systems and the other for the TRS-80.
The usual method of connecting floppy drives involves setting the drive letter via jumper blocks on the drive controller board, but Tandy opted for a slightly more user-friendly technique where all four select pins on the drives are jumpered and the ribbon cable is missing the Drive Select line. Thus, the user does not need to worry about moving jumpers around depending on which position on the chain a drive was in.
A standard flat floppy ribbon cable is usable on the Model I, in which case the drives is jumpered to their number on the chain, or even an IBM PC "twist" cable, which requires setting each drive number to 1, but only permits two drives on the chain.
Although third-party DOSes allow the user to define virtually any floppy format wanted, the "lowest common denominator" format for TRS-80s is the baseline single-density, single-sided, 35-40 track format of the Model I.
Third-party vendors like Aerocomp made available double-sided and 80 track -inch and later -inch floppy drives with up to 720 KB of storage each. These new drives are half-height and therefore require different or modified drive housings.
Exatron Stringy Floppy
An alternative to cassette tape and floppy disk storage from Exatron sold over 4,000 units by 1981. The device is a continuous loop tape drive, dubbed the stringy floppy or ESF. It requires no Expansion Interface, plugging directly into the TRS-80's 40-pin expansion bus, is much less expensive than a floppy drive, can read and write random-access data like a floppy drive unlike a cassette tape, and it transfers data at up to 14,400 baud. Exatron tape cartridges store over 64 KB of data. The ESF can coexist with the TRS-80 data cassette drive. Exatron also made a complementary RAM expansion board that installed in the TRS-80 keyboard to increase memory to 48 KB without the EI.
Hard drive
Radio Shack introduced a 5 MB external hard disk for the TRS-80 Model III/4 in 1983. It is the same hard disk unit offered for the Model II line, but came with OS software for Model III/4. An adapter is required to connect it to the Model I's E/I. The unit is about the same size as a modern desktop computer enclosure. Up to four hard disks can be daisychained for 20 MB of storage. The LDOS operating system by Logical Systems was bundled, which provides utilities for managing the storage space and flexible backup. The initial retail price for the first (primary) unit (US$2495) is equivalent to US$ in . Later, a 15MB hard disk was offered in a white case, which can be daisychained for up to 60 MB. Like most hard disks used on 8-bit machines, there is no provision for subdirectories, but the DiskDISK utility is a useful alternative that creates virtual hard disk ".DSK" files that can be mounted as another disk drive, and used like a subdirectory would. To display the directory/contents of an unmounted DiskDISK virtual disk file, a shareware DDIR "Virtual Disk Directory Utility" program was commonly used.
Printers
The "Quick Printer", is an electrostatic rotary printer that scans the video memory through the bus connector, and prints an image of the screen onto aluminum-coated paper in about one second. However, it is incompatible with both the final, buffered version of the expansion interface, and with the "heartbeat" interrupt used for the real-time clock under Disk BASIC. This can be overcome by using special cabling, and by doing a "dummy" write to the cassette port while triggering the printer.
Two third-party printers were for metal-coated paper, selling for approximately DM 600 in Germany, and a dot-matrix printer built by Centronics for normal paper, costing at first DM 3000, later sold at approximately DM 1500 in some stores. It has only 7 pins, so letters with descenders such as lowercase "g" do not reach under the baseline, but are elevated within the normal line.
Radio Shack offered an extensive line of printers for the TRS-80 family, ranging from basic 9-pin dot matrix units to large wide-carriage line printers for professional use, daisy-wheel printers, ink jet printers, laser printers and color plotters. All have a Centronics-standard interface and after the introduction of the Color Computer in 1980, many also had a connector for the CoCo's serial interface.
FP-215 is a flatbed plotter.
Software
BASIC
Three versions of the BASIC programming language were produced for the Model I. Level I BASIC fits in 4 KB of ROM, and Level II BASIC fits into 12 KB of ROM. Level I is single precision only and had a smaller set of commands. Level II introduced double precision floating point support and has a much wider set of commands. Level II was further enhanced when a disk system was added, allowing for the loading of Disk BASIC.
Level I BASIC is based on Li-Chen Wang's free Tiny BASIC with some additional functions added by Radio Shack. The accompanying User's Manual for Level 1 by David A. Lien presents lessons on programming with text and cartoons. Lien wrote that it was "written specifically for people who don't know anything about computers ... I want you to have fun with your computer! I don't want you to be afraid of it, because there is nothing to fear". Reviewers praised the manual's quality. Level I BASIC has only two string variables (A$ and B$), 26 numeric variables (A – Z), and one array, A(). Code for functions like SIN(), COS() and TAN() is not included in ROM but printed at the end of the book. The only error messages are "WHAT?" for syntax errors, "HOW?" for arithmetic errors such as division by zero, and "SORRY" for out of memory errors.
Level I BASIC is not tokenized; reserved words are stored literally. In order to maximize the code that fits into 4K of memory, users can enter abbreviations for reserved words. For example, writing "P." instead of "PRINT" saves 3 bytes.
Level II BASIC, introduced in mid-1978, was licensed from Microsoft and is required to use the expansion bus and disk drives. Radio Shack always intended for Level I BASIC to be a stopgap until Level II was ready, and the first brochure for the Model I in January 1978 mentioned that Level II BASIC was "coming soon". It is an abridged version of the 16k Extended BASIC, since the Model I has 12k of ROM space. According to Bill Gates, "It was a sort of intermediate between 8k BASIC and Extended BASIC. Some features from Extended BASIC such as descriptive errors and user defined functions were not included, but there were double precision variables and the PRINT USING statement that we wanted to get in. The entire development of Level II BASIC took about four weeks from start to finish." The accompanying manual is more terse and technical than the Level I manual. Original Level I BASIC-equipped machines could be retrofitted to Level II through a ROM replacement performed by Radio Shack for a fee (originally $199). Users with Level I BASIC programs stored on cassette have to convert these to the tokenized Level II BASIC before use. A utility for this was provided with the Level II ROMS.
Disk BASIC allows disk I/O, and in some cases (NewDos/80, MultiDOS, DosPlus, LDOS) adds powerful sorting, searching, full screen editing, and other features. Level II BASIC reserves some of these keywords and issues a "?L3 ERROR", suggesting a behind-the-scenes change of direction intervened between the creation of the Level II ROMs and the introduction of Disk BASIC.
Microsoft also marketed an enhanced BASIC called Level III BASIC written by Bill Gates, on cassette tape. The cassette contains a "Cassette File" version on one side and a "disk file" version on the second side for disk system users (which was to be saved to disk). Level III BASIC adds most of the functions in the full 16 KB version of BASIC plus many other TRS-80 specific enhancements. Many of Level III BASIC's features are included in the TRS-80 Model III's Level II BASIC and disk BASIC.
Level I BASIC was still offered on the Model I in either 4k or 16k configurations after the introduction of Level II BASIC.
Other programming languages
Radio Shack published a combined assembler and program editing package called the Series I Assembler Editor. 80 Micro magazine printed a modification enabling it to run under the Model 4's TRSDOS Version 6. Also from Radio Shack was Tiny Pascal.
Microsoft made its Fortran, COBOL and BASCOM BASIC compiler available through Radio Shack.
In 1982, Scientific Time Sharing Corporation published a version of its APL for the TRS-80 Model III as APL*PLUS/80.
Other applications
Blackjack and backgammon came with the TRS-80, and at its debut Radio Shack offered four payroll, personal finance, and educational programs on cassette. Its own products' quality was often poor. A critical 1980 80 Micro review of a text adventure described it as "yet another example of Radio Shack's inability to deal with the consumer in a consumer's market". The magazine added, "Sadly, too, as with some other Radio Shack programs, the instructions seem to assume that the reader is either a child or an adult with the mentality of a slightly premature corned beef".
The more than 2,000 Radio Shack franchise stores sold third-party hardware and software, but the more than 4,300 company-owned stores were at first prohibited from reselling or even mentioning products not sold by Radio Shack itself. Green stated in 1980 that although "there are more programs for the 80 than for all other systems combined" because of the computer's large market share, "Radio Shack can't advertise this because they are trying as hard as they can to keep this fact a secret from their customers. They don't want the TRS-80 buyers to know that there is anything more than their handful of mediocre programs available", many of which "are disastrous and, I'm sure, doing tremendous damage to the industry". Broderbund, founded that year, began by publishing TRS-80 software, but by 1983 cofounder Doug Carlston said that the computer "turned out to be a terrible market because most of the distribution networks were closed, even though there were plenty of machines out there". Green wrote in 1982 that Apple had surpassed Tandy in sales and sales outlets despite the thousands of Radio Shack dealers because it supported third-party development, while "we find the Shack seeming to begrudge any sale not made by them and them alone". Dealers not affiliated with Radio Shack preferred to sell software for other computers and not compete with the company; mail-order sales were also difficult, because company-owned stores did not sell third-party publications like 80 Micro.
Charles Tandy reportedly wanted to encourage outside developers but after his death a committee ran the company, which refused to help outside developers, hoping to monopolize the sale of software and peripherals. Leininger reportedly resigned because he disliked the company's bureaucracy after Tandy's death. An author wrote in a 1979 article on the computer's "mystery of machine language graphics control" that "Radio Shack seems to hide the neat little jewels of information a hobbyist needs to make a treasure of the TRS-80". He stated that other than the "excellent" Level I BASIC manual "there has been little information until recently ... TRS-80 owners must be resourceful", reporting that the computer's "keyboard, video, and cassette" functionality were also undocumented. The first book authorized by Tandy with technical information on TRSDOS for the Model I did not appear until after the computer's discontinuation.
By 1982, the company admitted—after no software appeared for the Model 16 after five months—that it should have, like Apple, encouraged third-party developers of products like the killer app VisiCalc. (A lengthy 1980 article in a Tandy publication introducing the TRS-80 version of VisiCalc did not mention that the spreadsheet had been available for the Apple II for a year.) However, in the early 1980s, it was not uncommon for small companies and municipalities to write custom programs for computers such as the TRS-80 to process a variety of data. In one case a small town's vehicle fleet was managed from a single TRS-80.
By 1985, the company's Ed Juge stated that other than Scripsit and DeskMate, "we intend to rely mostly on 'big-name', market proven software from leading software firms". A full suite of office applications became available from the company and others, including the VisiCalc and Multiplan spreadsheets and the Lazy Writer, Electric Pencil, and from Radio Shack itself the Scripsit and SuperScripsit word processors.
Compared to the contemporary Commodore and Apple micros, the TRS-80's block graphics and crude sound were widely considered limited. The faster speed available to the game programmer, not having to processor color data in high resolution, went a long way to compensating for this. TRS-80 arcade games tended to be faster with effects that emphasized motion. This perceived disadvantage did not deter independent software companies such as Big Five Software from producing unlicensed versions of arcade games like Namco's Galaxian, Atari's Asteroids, Taito's Lunar Rescue, Williams's Make Trax, and Exidy's Targ and Venture. Sega's Frogger and Zaxxon were ported to the computer and marketed by Radio Shack. Namco/Midway's Pac-Man was cloned by Philip Oliver and distributed by Cornsoft Group as Scarfman. Atari's Battlezone was cloned for the Models I/III by Wayne Westmoreland and Terry Gilman and published by Adventure International as Armored Patrol. They also cloned Eliminator (based on Defender) and Donkey Kong; the latter wasn't published until after the TRS-80 was discontinued, because Nintendo refused to license the game.
Some games originally written for other computers were ported to the TRS-80. Microchess has three levels of play and can run in the 4KB of memory that is standard with the Model I; the classic ELIZA is another TRS-80 port. Both were offered by Radio Shack. Apple Panic, itself a clone of Universal's Space Panic, was written for the TRS-80 by Yves Lempereur and published by Funsoft. Epyxs Temple of Apshai runs slowly on the TRS-80. Infocom ported its series of interactive text-based adventure games to the Models I/III; the first, Zork I, was marketed by Radio Shack.
Adventure International's text adventures began on the TRS-80, as did Sea Dragon by Westmoreland and Gilman, later ported to the other home micros. Android Nim by Leo Christopherson was rewritten for the Commodore PET and Apple. Many games are unique to the TRS-80, including Duel-N-Droids, also by Christopherson, an early first-person shooter 13 Ghosts by Software Affair (the Orchestra-80, -85 and -90 people) and shooters like Cosmic Fighter and Defence Command, and strange experimental programs such as Christopherson's Dancing Demon, in which the player composes a song for a devil and choreographs his dance steps to the music. Radio Shack offered simple graphics animation programs Micro Movie and Micro Marquee, and Micro Music.
Radio Shack offered a number of programming utilities, including an advanced debugger, a subroutine package, and a cross reference builder. Probably the most popular utility package was Super Utility written by Kim Watt of Breeze Computing. Other utility software such as Stewart Software's Toolkit offered the first sorted directory, decoding or reset of passwords, and the ability to eliminate parts of TRSDOS that were not needed in order to free up floppy disk space. They also produced the On-Line 80 BBS, a TRSDOS based Bulletin Board System. Misosys Inc. was a prolific producer of sophisticated TRS-80 utility and language software for all models of TRS-80 from the very beginning.
Perhaps because of the lack of information on TRSDOS and its bugs, by 1982 perhaps more operating systems existed for the TRS-80 than for any other computer. TRSDOS is limited in its capabilities, since like Apple DOS 3.3 on the Apple II, it is mainly conceived of as a way of extending BASIC to support disk drives. Numerous alternative DOSes appeared, the most prominent being LDOS because Radio Shack licensed it from Logical Systems and adopted it as its official DOS for its Models I and III hard disk drive products. Other alternative TRS-80 DOSes included NewDOS from Apparat Personal Computers, and DoubleDOS, DOSPlus, MicroDOS, UltraDOS (later called Multidos). The DOS for the Model 4 line was originally called TRSDOS Version 6 but was actually produced by and licensed from Logical Systems, and is technically a descendant of the original Model I LDOS.
The memory map of the Model I and III render them incompatible with the standard CP/M OS for Z80 business computers, which loads at hexadecimal address $0000 with TPA (Transient Program Area) starting at $0100; the TRS-80 ROM resides in this address space. Omikron Systems' Mappers board remaps the ROM to run unmodified CP/M programs on the Model I. A customized version of CP/M is available, but loses its portability advantage. 80 Micro magazine published a do-it-yourself CP/M modification for the Model III.
Reception
Dan Fylstra, among the first owners, wrote in BYTE in April 1978 that as an "'appliance' computer ... the TRS-80 brings the personal computer a good deal closer to the average customer", suitable for home and light business use. He concluded that it "is not the only alternative for the aspiring personal computer user, but it is a strong contender." Jerry Pournelle wrote in 1980 that "the basic TRS-80 is a lot of computer for the money". He criticized the quality of Tandy's application and system software, and high cost of peripherals. Pournelle reported, however, that with the Omikron board, a customer paid less than $5000 for a computer compatible with TRS-80 and CP/M software "all without building a single kit".
Three years later Pournelle was less positive about the computer. He wrote in May 1983, "As to our TRS-80 Model I, we trashed that sucker long ago. It was always unreliable, and repeated trips to the local Radio Shack outlet didn't help. The problem was that Tandy cut corners". Pournelle wrote in July:
Compatible successors
Tandy replaced the Model I with the broadly compatible Model III in 1980. (The TRS-80 Model II is an entirely different and incompatible design).
Model III
Tandy released the TRS-80 Model III on July 26, 1980. The improvements of the Model III over the Model I include: built-in lowercase, a better keyboard with repeating keys, an enhanced character set, a real-time clock, 1500-baud cassette interface, a faster (2.03 MHz) Z80 processor, and an all-in-one enclosure requiring fewer cables. A Model III with two floppy drives requires the use of only one electrical outlet; a two-drive Model I requires five outlets. The Model III avoids the complicated power on/off sequence of the Model I. Shortly after the Model III's introduction, Model I production was discontinued as it did not comply with new FCC regulations as of January 1, 1981 regarding electromagnetic interference.
Tandy distinguished between the high-end Model II and Model III, describing the former as "an administrative system, good for things like word processing, data management and VisiCalc operations" and suitable for small businesses. The lowest-priced version of the Model III was sold with 4KB of RAM and cassette storage. The computer's CPU board has three banks of sockets (8 sockets to a bank) which take type 4116 DRAMs, so memory configurations come in 16KB, 32KB, or 48KB RAM memory sizes. Computers with 32K or 48K RAM can be upgraded with floppy disk drive storage. There is space inside the computer cabinet for two full-height drives. Those offered by Tandy/Radio Shack are single-sided, 40 track, double-density (MFM encoding) for 180K of storage. Third-party suppliers offered double-sided and 80-track drives, though to control them they had to modify the TRSDOS driver code or else furnish an alternative third-party DOS which could (see below). The installation of floppy disk drives also requires the computer's power supply to be upgraded. There is no internal cooling fan in the Model III; it uses passive convection cooling (unless an unusual number of power-hungry expansions were installed internally, such as a hard disk drive, graphics board, speedup kit, RS-232 board, etc.).
Tandy claimed that the Model III was compatible with 80% of Model I software. Many software publishers issued patches to permit their Model I programs to run on the Model III. Marketing director Ed Juge explained that their designers considered changing from the Model I's 64 column by 16 row video screen layout, but that they ultimately decided that maintaining compatibility was most important.
The Model III's memory map and system architecture is mostly the same as the Model I, but the disk drives and printer port were moved from memory mapped to port I/O, thus Model I software that attempts to manipulate the disk controller directly or output to the printer (in particular Model I DOSes and application packages such as Visicalc and Scripsit) will not work. Under the supplied TRSDOS 1.3 operating system Model I disks can be read in the Model III, but not vice versa. The optional LDOS OS (by Logical Systems Inc.) use a common disk format for both Model I and Model III versions.
Customers and developers complained of bugs in the Model III's Microsoft BASIC interpreter and TRSDOS. Tandy/Radio Shack (and TRS-80 magazines like 80 Micro) periodically published many software patches to correct these deficiencies and to permit users to customize the software to their preferences.
Differences in the WD1771 and WD1791 floppy controllers created problems reading Model I disks on a Model III (the double density upgrade in the Model I include both chips while a Model III had only the WD1791). The WD1771 supports four data markers while the WD1791 only supports two, and some versions of TRSDOS for the Model I also use them. In addition, they are used by copy protection schemes. Software was available to allow Model I disks to be read on a Model III. The WD1791 supports the 500 bit/s bitrate needed for high density floppy drives, but the controller is not capable of using them without extensive modifications.
TRSDOS for the Model III was developed in-house by Radio Shack rather than being contracted out like the Model I's DOS. None of the code base from Model I DOS was reused and the Model III DOS was rewritten from scratch; this also created some compatibility issues since the Model III DOS's API was not entirely identical to the Model I DOS. This was primarily to avoid legal disputes with Randy Cook over ownership of the code as had occurred with Model I DOS and also because Radio Shack originally planned several features for the Model III such as 80 column text support that were not included. Two early versions, 1.1 and 1.2, were replaced by version 1.3 in 1981 which became the standard Model III OS. TRSDOS 1.3 is not format compatible with 1.1 and 1.2; a utility called XFERSYS is provided which converted older format disks to TRSDOS 1.3 format (this change is permanent and the resultant disks cannot be read with the older DOS versions).
The Model III's boot screen was cleaned up from the Model I. Instead of displaying garbage on screen at power up, it displays a "Diskette?" prompt if a bootable floppy is not detected. The user can insert a disk and press any key to boot. On powerup or reset holding down the key will boot the computer into ROM-based Level II BASIC. This capability is useful if the disk drive is not functioning and cannot boot a TRSDOS disk (or if a boot disk is not available); it permits an operator familiar with the machine hardware to perform diagnostics using BASIC's PEEK and POKE commands. This works for the Model 4 as well, but not for the 4P.
While Model I DOS is fairly flexible in its capabilities, Model III DOS is hard coded to only support 180K single sided floppies, a problem fixed by the many third party DOSes. To that end, when Radio Shack introduced hard disks for the TRS-80 line in 1982, the company licensed LDOS rather than attempt to modify Model III DOS for hard disk support.
Level II BASIC on the Model III is 16K in size and incorporates a few features from Level I Disk BASIC
TRSDOS 1.3 was given a few more minor updates, the last being in 1984, although the version number was unchanged. This includes at least one update that writes an Easter Egg message "Joe, you rummy buzzard" on an unused disk sector, which is reputedly a joke message left by a programmer in a beta version, but accidentally included in the production master.
The Model III keyboard lacks . Many application programs use , while others use . Often is used in combination with number and alpha keys. The Model III keyboard also lacks ; to caps-lock the alpha keys the user presses . Under LDOS typeahead is supported.
Because TRSDOS 1.3 was found wanting by many users, Tandy offered (at additional cost) Logical System's LDOS Version 5 as an alternative. As with the Model I, other third-party sources also offered TRSDOS alternatives for the Model III, including NewDOS, Alphabit's MultiDOS, and Micro Systems Software's DOSPlus. These are compatible with TRSDOS 1.3 and ran the same applications programs, but offer improved command structures, more and better system utilities, and enhancements to the Microsoft BASIC interpreter. After writing the original Model I TRSDOS, Randy Cook began work on his own DOS, titled VTOS, which was superseded by LDOS and also created some frustration for users as it is the only TRS-80 DOS to be copy protected.
Although mostly intended as a disk-based computer, the Model III was available in a base cassette configuration with no disk hardware and only 16K of RAM with Level II BASIC. Radio Shack also offered a 4K version with Level I BASIC, identical to Model I Level I BASIC, but with the addition of LPRINT and LLIST commands for printer output. Upgrading to a disk machine necessitate installing at least 32K of RAM, the disk controller board, and an additional power supply for the disk drives. Disk upgrades purchased from Radio Shack included TRSDOS 1.3; users upgrading from third-party vendors had to purchase DOS separately (most opted for LDOS or DOSPlus), though a great many Model III applications programs included a licensed copy of TRSDOS 1.3.
As with the Model I's E/I, the RS-232C port on the Model III was an extra cost option and not included in the base price of the computer, though the dual disk Model III for $2495 included the serial port.
Like the Model I, the Model III sold well in the educational market. Many school administrators valued the Model III's all-in-one hardware design because it made it more difficult for students to steal components. InfoWorld approved of the Model III's single-unit design, simplified cable management, and improvements such as lack of keyboard bounce and improved disk reliability. The reviewer, a former Model I owner, stated "I'm impressed" and that "had the Model III been available, it's probable that I wouldn't have sold it". He concluded, "If you're looking for a computer that's not too expensive but that performs well, you would be wise to test the Model III—you might end up buying it."
Don French, who had left Radio Shack to found FMG Software after designing the Model I, expressed his disappointment in the new machine while trying to convert CP/M to run on it. "I've encountered numerous problems with the floppy drive and its interface. Radio Shack will sell a Model III to anyone. They're trying to market it as a business computer when the existing software is woefully inadequate. 48K just isn't enough. You run out of memory before you get going. They're selling a medical package that takes up nine disks. I think the Model III is a very poorly conceived machine".
Aftermarket products
Aftermarket hardware were offered by Tandy/Radio Shack and many third-party manufacturers. The usual selection of add-ons and peripherals available for the Model I were offered: outboard floppy drives (one or two could be plugged into a card-edge connector on the back panel), an outboard hard disk drive (LDOS was furnished as Tandy's hard drive OS vice TRSDOS), a high-resolution graphics board (resolution 512 by 192 pixels), an RS-232C serial port on an internal circuit card, and a parallel printer (connected by a card-edge connector). A popular hardware/software add-on was the Orchestra-90 music synthesizer. It can be programmed to play up to five voices with a range of six octaves stereophonically. A great many Orch-90 (as it was often called) music files were available for download from CompuServe. The Orch-90 was licensed from a company called Software Affair, which also produced the Model I-compatible Orchestra-85 from 1981.
At least three vendors produced CP/M modifications for the Model III, Omikron (also a Model I mod), Holmes Engineering, and Memory Merchant. Options were available for upgrading the CRT to the CP/M professional standard of 80 columns and 24 rows, as well as eight inch floppy drives.
A number of third-party manufacturers specialized in upgrading Model IIIs with high performance hardware and software, and remarketing them under their own labels. The improvements typically included internal hard disk drives, greater capacity floppy drives, 4 MHz Z80 speedup kits, professional grade green or amber CRT video displays, better DOS software (typically DOSPlus by Micro Systems Software or LDOS by Logical Systems) including the all-important hard drive backup utilities, and custom menu-driven shell interfaces which insulated non-expert users (business employees) from the DOS command line. These were touted as high productivity turnkey systems for small businesses at less cost than competing business systems from higher-end providers such as IBM and DEC, as well as Radio Shack's own TRS-80 Model II.
Model 4
The successor to the Model III is the TRS-80 Model 4 released in April 1983. It has faster Z80A 4 MHz CPU, a larger video display 80 columns x 24 rows with reverse video, bigger keyboard, internal speaker, and its 64KB of RAM can be upgraded to 128KB of bank-switched RAM. The display can be upgraded with a high resolution graphics card yielding 640x240 pixels. The Model 4 is fully compatible with Model III and CP/M application software. A diskless Model 4 (with 16KB RAM and Level II BASIC) cost $999, with 64KB RAM and one single-sided 180K disk drive $1699, and two drives with RS-232C $1999; an upgrade for Model III owners cost $799 and provided a new motherboard and keyboard. Tandy sold 71,000 in 1984.
The Model 4 includes all of the Model III's hardware, port assignments, and operating modes, making it 100% compatible. Model III programs running on a Model 4 can access the Model 4's additional hardware features (like 4 MHz clock rate, bigger video screen and keyboard, banked RAM above 64 KB). There were aftermarket software packages that made this capability available to non-programmer users.
The Model 4P is a transportable version introduced in September 1983 and discontinued in early 1985. It is functionally the same as the dual-drive desktop model but lacks the card edge connector for two outboard diskette drives and for cassette tape interface. It has a slot for an internal modem card and could emulate a Model III.
The Model 4D with bundled Deskmate productivity suite was introduced in early 1985. It has a revised CPU board using faster gate array logic which includes the floppy controller and RS-232C circuitry, all on a single board. The computer has two internal double-sided diskette drives, and is the last model descended from the 1977 Model I. It retailed for $1199 at its introduction in 1985. During 1987–1988 the retail stores removed the Model 4Ds from display but they were available by special order through 1991.
See also
List of TRS-80 games
List of TRS-80 software
List of TRS-80 clones
SoftSide, magazine with BASIC programs for the TRS-80 and other microcomputers
The Alternate Source Programmer's Journal, TRS-80 magazine with technical programming articles
Note
References
Further reading
External links
Radio Shack Catalog Archive (1939–2011)
Radio Shack Model I and II catalog RSC-3
trs-80.com : Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Site
TRS-80 Model 1 at www.old-computers.com
REM 80 – The North West TRS-80 USers Group Magazines
TRS-80 Emulator in Javascript : online emulation of Model III BASIC & commercial arcade games
jTandy, another javascript TRS-80 emulator : online emulation of Model III BASIC & commercial arcade games
Tandy Model 4/4P Technical Reference
LDOS 5.1 User Manual
Byte magazine review of LDOS 5.1
Z80-based home computers
Home computers
Computer-related introductions in 1977
Products introduced in 1977
8-bit computers
Early microcomputers |
2032576 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear%20weapons%20of%20the%20United%20States | Nuclear weapons of the United States | The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat, with the separate bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Before and during the Cold War, it conducted over one thousand nuclear tests and tested many long-range nuclear weapons delivery systems.
Between 1940 and 1996, the U.S. Federal Government spent at least US$ in present-day terms on nuclear weapons, including platforms development (aircraft, rockets and facilities), command and control, maintenance, waste management and administrative costs. It is estimated that the United States produced more than 70,000 nuclear warheads since 1945, more than all other nuclear weapon states combined. Until November 1962, the vast majority of U.S. nuclear tests were above ground. After the acceptance of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, all testing was relegated underground, in order to prevent the dispersion of nuclear fallout.
By 1998 at least US$759 million had been paid to the Marshall Islanders in compensation for their exposure to U.S. nuclear testing. By March 2021 over US$2.5 billion in compensation had been paid to U.S. citizens exposed to nuclear hazards as a result of the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
In 2019, the U.S. and Russia possessed a comparable number of nuclear warheads; together, these two nations possess more than 90% of the world's nuclear weapons stockpile. As of 2020, the United States had a stockpile of 3,750 active and inactive nuclear warheads plus approximately 2,000 warheads retired and awaiting dismantlement. Of the stockpiled warheads, the U.S. stated in its March 2019 New START declaration that 1,365 were deployed on 656 ICBMs, SLBMs, and strategic bombers.
Development history
Manhattan Project
The United States first began developing nuclear weapons during World War II under the order of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, motivated by the fear that they were engaged in a race with Nazi Germany to develop such a weapon. After a slow start under the direction of the National Bureau of Standards, at the urging of British scientists and American administrators, the program was put under the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and in 1942 it was officially transferred under the auspices of the United States Army and became known as the Manhattan Project, an American, British and Canadian joint venture. Under the direction of General Leslie Groves, over thirty different sites were constructed for the research, production, and testing of components related to bomb-making. These included the Los Alamos National Laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the direction of physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the Hanford plutonium production facility in Washington, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.
By investing heavily in breeding plutonium in early nuclear reactors and in the electromagnetic and gaseous diffusion enrichment processes for the production of uranium-235, the United States was able to develop three usable weapons by mid-1945. The Trinity test was a plutonium implosion-design weapon tested on 16 July 1945, with around a 20 kiloton yield.
Faced with a planned invasion of the Japanese home islands scheduled to begin on 1 November 1945 and with Japan not surrendering, President Harry S. Truman ordered the atomic raids on Japan. On 6 August 1945, the U.S. detonated a uranium-gun design bomb, Little Boy, over the Japanese city of Hiroshima with an energy of about 15 kilotons of TNT, killing approximately 70,000 people, among them 20,000 Japanese combatants and 20,000 Korean slave laborers, and destroying nearly 50,000 buildings (including the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division headquarters). Three days later, on 9 August, the U.S. attacked Nagasaki using a plutonium implosion-design bomb, Fat Man, with the explosion equivalent to about 20 kilotons of TNT, destroying 60% of the city and killing approximately 35,000 people, among them 23,200–28,200 Japanese munitions workers, 2,000 Korean slave laborers, and 150 Japanese combatants.
On 1 January 1947, the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (known as the McMahon Act) took effect, and the Manhattan Project was officially turned over to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
On 15 August 1947, the Manhattan District was abolished.
During the Cold War
The American atomic stockpile was small and grew slowly in the immediate aftermath of World War II, and the size of that stockpile was a closely guarded secret. However, there were forces that pushed the United States towards greatly increasing the size of the stockpile. Some of these were international in origin and focused on the increasing tensions of the Cold War, including the loss of China, the Soviet Union becoming an atomic power, and the onset of the Korean War. And some of the forces were domestic – both the Truman administration and the Eisenhower administration wanted to reign in military spending and avoid budget deficits and inflation. It was the perception that nuclear weapons gave more "bang for the buck" and thus were the most cost-efficient way to respond to the security threat the Soviet Union represented.
As a result, beginning in 1950 the AEC embarked on a massive expansion of its production facilities, an effort that would eventually be one of the largest U.S. government construction projects ever to take place outside of wartime. And this production would soon include the far more powerful hydrogen bomb, which the United States had decided to move forward with after an intense debate during 1949–50. as well as much smaller tactical atomic weapons for battlefield use.
By 1990, the United States had produced more than 70,000 nuclear warheads, in over 65 different varieties, ranging in yield from around .01 kilotons (such as the man-portable Davy Crockett shell) to the 25 megaton B41 bomb. Between 1940 and 1996, the U.S. spent at least $ in present-day terms on nuclear weapons development. Over half was spent on building delivery mechanisms for the weapon. $ in present-day terms was spent on nuclear waste management and environmental remediation.
Richland, Washington was the first city established to support plutonium production at the nearby Hanford nuclear site, to power the American nuclear weapons arsenals. It produced plutonium for use in cold war atomic bombs.
Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. and USSR threatened with all-out nuclear attack in case of war, regardless of whether it was a conventional or a nuclear clash. U.S. nuclear doctrine called for mutually assured destruction (MAD), which entailed a massive nuclear attack against strategic targets and major populations centers of the Soviet Union and its allies. The term "mutual assured destruction" was coined in 1962 by American strategist Donald Brennan. MAD was implemented by deploying nuclear weapons simultaneously on three different types of weapons platforms.
Post–Cold War
After the 1989 end of the Cold War and the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S. nuclear program was heavily curtailed, halting its program of nuclear testing, ceasing its production of new nuclear weapons, and reducing its stockpile by half by the mid-1990s under President Bill Clinton. Many former nuclear facilities were shut down, and their sites became targets of extensive environmental remediation. Efforts were redirected from weapons production to stockpile stewardship, attempting to predict the behavior of aging weapons without using full-scale nuclear testing. Increased funding was also put into anti-nuclear proliferation programs, such as helping the states of the former Soviet Union to eliminate their former nuclear sites and to assist Russia in their efforts to inventory and secure their inherited nuclear stockpile. By February 2006, over $1.2 billion had been paid under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 to U.S. citizens exposed to nuclear hazards as a result of the U.S. nuclear weapons program, and by 1998 at least $759 million had been paid to the Marshall Islanders in compensation for their exposure to U.S. nuclear testing, and over $15 million was paid to the Japanese government following the exposure of its citizens and food supply to nuclear fallout from the 1954 "Bravo" test. In 1998, the country spent an estimated total of $35.1 billion on its nuclear weapons and weapons-related programs.
In the 2013 book Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (Oxford), Kate Brown explores the health of affected citizens in the United States, and the "slow-motion disasters" that still threaten the environments where the plants are located. According to Brown, the plants at Hanford, over a period of four decades, released millions of curies of radioactive isotopes into the surrounding environment. Brown says that most of this radioactive contamination over the years at Hanford were part of normal operations, but unforeseen accidents did occur and plant management kept this secret, as the pollution continued unabated. Even today, as pollution threats to health and the environment persist, the government keeps knowledge about the associated risks from the public.
During the presidency of George W. Bush, and especially after the 11 September terrorist attacks of 2001, rumors circulated in major news sources that the U.S. was considering designing new nuclear weapons ("bunker-busting nukes") and resuming nuclear testing for reasons of stockpile stewardship. Republicans argued that small nuclear weapons appear more likely to be used than large nuclear weapons, and thus small nuclear weapons pose a more credible threat that has more of a deterrent effect against hostile behavior. Democrats counterargued that allowing the weapons could trigger an arms race. In 2003, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to repeal the 1993 Spratt-Furse ban on the development of small nuclear weapons. This change was part of the 2004 fiscal year defense authorization. The Bush administration wanted the repeal so that they could develop weapons to address the threat from North Korea. "Low-yield weapons" (those with one-third the force of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945) were permitted to be developed.
Statements by the U.S. government in 2004 indicated that they planned to decrease the arsenal to around 5,500 total warheads by 2012. Much of that reduction was already accomplished by January 2008.
According to the Pentagon's June 2019 Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations, "Integration of nuclear weapons employment with conventional and special operations forces is essential to the success of any mission or operation."
Nuclear weapons testing
Between 16 July 1945 and 23 September 1992, the United States maintained a program of vigorous nuclear testing, with the exception of a moratorium between November 1958 and September 1961. By official count, a total of 1,054 nuclear tests and two nuclear attacks were conducted, with over 100 of them taking place at sites in the Pacific Ocean, over 900 of them at the Nevada Test Site, and ten on miscellaneous sites in the United States (Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi, and New Mexico). Until November 1962, the vast majority of the U.S. tests were atmospheric (that is, above-ground); after the acceptance of the Partial Test Ban Treaty all testing was relegated underground, in order to prevent the dispersion of nuclear fallout.
The U.S. program of atmospheric nuclear testing exposed a number of the population to the hazards of fallout. Estimating exact numbers, and the exact consequences, of people exposed has been medically very difficult, with the exception of the high exposures of Marshall Islanders and Japanese fishers in the case of the Castle Bravo incident in 1954. A number of groups of U.S. citizens—especially farmers and inhabitants of cities downwind of the Nevada Test Site and U.S. military workers at various tests—have sued for compensation and recognition of their exposure, many successfully. The passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 allowed for a systematic filing of compensation claims in relation to testing as well as those employed at nuclear weapons facilities. By June 2009 over $1.4 billion total has been given in compensation, with over $660 million going to "downwinders".
A few notable U.S. nuclear tests include:
Trinity test on 16 July 1945, was the world's first test of a nuclear weapon (yield of around 20 kt).
Operation Crossroads series in July 1946, was the first postwar test series and one of the largest military operations in U.S. history.
Operation Greenhouse shots of May 1951 included the first boosted fission weapon test ("Item") and a scientific test that proved the feasibility of thermonuclear weapons ("George").
Ivy Mike shot of 1 November 1952, was the first full test of a Teller-Ulam design "staged" hydrogen bomb, with a yield of 10 megatons. It was not a deployable weapon, however—with its full cryogenic equipment it weighed some 82 tons.
Castle Bravo shot of 1 March 1954, was the first test of a deployable (solid fuel) thermonuclear weapon, and also (accidentally) the largest weapon ever tested by the United States (15 megatons). It was also the single largest U.S. radiological accident in connection with nuclear testing. The unanticipated yield, and a change in the weather, resulted in nuclear fallout spreading eastward onto the inhabited Rongelap and Rongerik atolls, which were soon evacuated. Many of the Marshall Islanders have since suffered from birth defects and have received some compensation from the federal government. A Japanese fishing boat, Daigo Fukuryū Maru, also came into contact with the fallout, which caused many of the crew to grow ill; one eventually died.
Shot Argus I of Operation Argus, on 27 August 1958, was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon in outer space when a 1.7-kiloton warhead was detonated at an altitude of during a series of high altitude nuclear explosions.
Shot Frigate Bird of Operation Dominic I on 6 May 1962, was the only U.S. test of an operational submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) with a live nuclear warhead (yield of 600 kilotons), at Christmas Island. In general, missile systems were tested without live warheads and warheads were tested separately for safety concerns. In the early 1960s, however, there mounted technical questions about how the systems would behave under combat conditions (when they were "mated", in military parlance), and this test was meant to dispel these concerns. However, the warhead had to be somewhat modified before its use, and the missile was a SLBM (and not an ICBM), so by itself it did not satisfy all concerns.
Shot Sedan of Operation Storax on 6 July 1962 (yield of 104 kilotons), was an attempt to show the feasibility of using nuclear weapons for "civilian" and "peaceful" purposes as part of Operation Plowshare. In this instance, a diameter deep crater was created at the Nevada Test Site.
A summary table of each of the American operational series may be found at United States' nuclear test series.
Delivery systems
The original Little Boy and Fat Man weapons, developed by the United States during the Manhattan Project, were relatively large (Fat Man had a diameter of ) and heavy (around 5 tons each) and required specially modified bomber planes to be adapted for their bombing missions against Japan. Each modified bomber could only carry one such weapon and only within a limited range. After these initial weapons were developed, a considerable amount of money and research was conducted towards the goal of standardizing nuclear warheads so that they did not require highly specialized experts to assemble them before use, as in the case with the idiosyncratic wartime devices, and miniaturization of the warheads for use in more variable delivery systems.
Through the aid of brainpower acquired through Operation Paperclip at the tail end of the European theater of World War II, the United States was able to embark on an ambitious program in rocketry. One of the first products of this was the development of rockets capable of holding nuclear warheads. The MGR-1 Honest John was the first such weapon, developed in 1953 as a surface-to-surface missile with a maximum range. Because of their limited range, their potential use was heavily constrained (they could not, for example, threaten Moscow with an immediate strike).
Development of long-range bombers, such as the B-29 Superfortress during World War II, was continued during the Cold War period. In 1946, the Convair B-36 Peacemaker became the first purpose-built nuclear bomber; it served with the USAF until 1959. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress was able by the mid-1950s to carry a wide arsenal of nuclear bombs, each with different capabilities and potential use situations. Starting in 1946, the U.S. based its initial deterrence force on the Strategic Air Command, which, by the late 1950s, maintained a number of nuclear-armed bombers in the sky at all times, prepared to receive orders to attack the USSR whenever needed. This system was, however, tremendously expensive, both in terms of natural and human resources, and raised the possibility of an accidental nuclear war.
During the 1950s and 1960s, elaborate computerized early warning systems such as Defense Support Program were developed to detect incoming Soviet attacks and to coordinate response strategies. During this same period, intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems were developed that could deliver a nuclear payload across vast distances, allowing the U.S. to house nuclear forces capable of hitting the Soviet Union in the American Midwest. Shorter-range weapons, including small tactical weapons, were fielded in Europe as well, including nuclear artillery and man-portable Special Atomic Demolition Munition. The development of submarine-launched ballistic missile systems allowed for hidden nuclear submarines to covertly launch missiles at distant targets as well, making it virtually impossible for the Soviet Union to successfully launch a first strike attack against the United States without receiving a deadly response.
Improvements in warhead miniaturization in the 1970s and 1980s allowed for the development of MIRVs—missiles which could carry multiple warheads, each of which could be separately targeted. The question of whether these missiles should be based on constantly rotating train tracks (to avoid being easily targeted by opposing Soviet missiles) or based in heavily fortified silos (to possibly withstand a Soviet attack) was a major political controversy in the 1980s (eventually the silo deployment method was chosen). MIRVed systems enabled the U.S. to render Soviet missile defenses economically unfeasible, as each offensive missile would require between three and ten defensive missiles to counter.
Additional developments in weapons delivery included cruise missile systems, which allowed a plane to fire a long-distance, low-flying nuclear-armed missile towards a target from a relatively comfortable distance.
The current delivery systems of the U.S. make virtually any part of the Earth's surface within the reach of its nuclear arsenal. Though its land-based missile systems have a maximum range of (less than worldwide), its submarine-based forces extend its reach from a coastline inland. Additionally, in-flight refueling of long-range bombers and the use of aircraft carriers extends the possible range virtually indefinitely.
Command and control
Command and control procedures in case of nuclear war were given by the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) until 2003, when this was superseded by Operations Plan 8044.
Since World War II, the President of the United States has had sole authority to launch U.S. nuclear weapons, whether as a first strike or nuclear retaliation. This arrangement was seen as necessary during the Cold War to present a credible nuclear deterrent; if an attack was detected, the United States would have only minutes to launch a counterstrike before its nuclear capability was severely damaged, or national leaders killed. If the President has been killed, command authority follows the presidential line of succession. Changes to this policy have been proposed, but currently the only way to countermand such an order before the strike was launched would be for the Vice President and the majority of the Cabinet to relieve the President under Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Regardless of whether the United States is actually under attack by a nuclear-capable adversary, the President alone has the authority to order nuclear strikes. The President and the Secretary of Defense form the National Command Authority, but the Secretary of Defense has no authority to refuse or disobey such an order. The President's decision must be transmitted to the National Military Command Center, which will then issue the coded orders to nuclear-capable forces.
The President can give a nuclear launch order using his or her nuclear briefcase (nicknamed the nuclear football), or can use command centers such as the White House Situation Room. The command would be carried out by a Nuclear and Missile Operations Officer (a member of a missile combat crew, also called a "missileer") at a missile launch control center. A two-man rule applies to the launch of missiles, meaning that two officers must turn keys simultaneously (far enough apart that this cannot be done by one person).
When President Reagan was shot in 1981 there was confusion about where the "nuclear football" was, and who was in charge.
In 1975 a launch crew member, Harold Hering, was dismissed from the Air Force for asking how he could know whether the order to launch his missiles came from a sane president. It has been claimed that the system is not foolproof.
Starting with President Eisenhower, authority to launch a full-scale nuclear attack has been delegated to theater commanders and other specific commanders if they believe it is warranted by circumstances, and are out of communication with the president or the president had been incapacitated. For example, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, on 24 October 1962, General Thomas Power, commander of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), took the country to DEFCON 2, the very precipice of full-scale nuclear war, launching the SAC bombers of the US with nuclear weapons ready to strike. Moreover, some of these commanders subdelegated to lower commanders the authority to launch nuclear weapons under similar circumstance. In fact, the nuclear weapons were not placed under locks until decades later, so pilots or individual submarine commanders had the power, but not the authority, to launch nuclear weapons entirely on their own.
Accidents
The United States nuclear program since its inception has experienced accidents of varying forms, ranging from single-casualty research experiments (such as that of Louis Slotin during the Manhattan Project), to the nuclear fallout dispersion of the Castle Bravo shot in 1954, to accidents such as crashes of aircraft carrying nuclear weapons, the dropping of nuclear weapons from aircraft, losses of nuclear submarines, and explosions of nuclear-armed missiles (broken arrows). How close any of these accidents came to being major nuclear disasters is a matter of technical and scholarly debate and interpretation.
Weapons accidentally dropped by the United States include incidents off the coast of British Columbia (1950) (see 1950 British Columbia B-36 crash), near Atlantic City, New Jersey (1957); Savannah, Georgia (1958) (see Tybee Bomb); Goldsboro, North Carolina (1961) (see 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash); off the coast of Okinawa (1965); in the sea near Palomares, Spain (1966, see 1966 Palomares B-52 crash); and near Thule Air Base, Greenland (1968) (see 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash). In some of these cases (such as the 1966 Palomares case), the explosive system of the fission weapon discharged, but did not trigger a nuclear chain reaction (safety features prevent this from easily happening), but did disperse hazardous nuclear materials across wide areas, necessitating expensive cleanup endeavors. Several US nuclear weapons, partial weapons, or weapons components are thought to be lost and unrecovered, primarily in aircraft accidents. The 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas, threw a warhead from its silo but did not release any radiation.
The nuclear testing program resulted in a number of cases of fallout dispersion onto populated areas. The most significant of these was the Castle Bravo test, which spread radioactive ash over an area of over , including a number of populated islands. The populations of the islands were evacuated but not before suffering radiation burns. They would later suffer long-term effects, such as birth defects and increased cancer risk. There are ongoing concerns around deterioration of the nuclear waste site on Runit Island and a potential radioactive spill. There were also instances during the nuclear testing program in which soldiers were exposed to overly high levels of radiation, which grew into a major scandal in the 1970s and 1980s, as many soldiers later suffered from what were claimed to be diseases caused by their exposures.
Many of the former nuclear facilities produced significant environmental damages during their years of activity, and since the 1990s have been Superfund sites of cleanup and environmental remediation. Hanford is currently the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup. Radioactive materials are known to be leaking from Hanford into the environment. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 allows for U.S. citizens exposed to radiation or other health risks through the U.S. nuclear program to file for compensation and damages.
Deliberate attacks on weapons facilities
In 1972 three hijackers took control of a domestic passenger flight along the east coast of the U.S. and threatened to crash the plane into a U.S. nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The plane got as close as 8,000 feet above the site before the hijackers' demands were met.
Various acts of civil disobedience since 1980 by the peace group Plowshares have shown how nuclear weapons facilities can be penetrated, and the group's actions represent extraordinary breaches of security at nuclear weapons plants in the United States. The National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged the seriousness of the 2012 Plowshares action. Non-proliferation policy experts have questioned "the use of private contractors to provide security at facilities that manufacture and store the government's most dangerous military material". Nuclear weapons materials on the black market are a global concern, and there is concern about the possible detonation of a small, crude nuclear weapon by a militant group in a major city, with significant loss of life and property.
Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in June 2010 that is believed to have been created by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear fuel enrichment facilities.
Development agencies
The initial U.S. nuclear program was run by the National Bureau of Standards starting in 1939 under the edict of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Its primary purpose was to delegate research and dispense funds. In 1940 the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was established, coordinating work under the Committee on Uranium among its other wartime efforts. In June 1941, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was established, with the NDRC as one of its subordinate agencies, which enlarged and renamed the Uranium Committee as the Section on Uranium. In 1941, NDRC research was placed under direct control of Vannevar Bush as the OSRD S-1 Section, which attempted to increase the pace of weapons research. In June 1942, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took over the project to develop atomic weapons, while the OSRD retained responsibility for scientific research.
This was the beginning of the Manhattan Project, run as the Manhattan Engineering District (MED), an agency under military control that was in charge of developing the first atomic weapons. After World War II, the MED maintained control over the U.S. arsenal and production facilities and coordinated the Operation Crossroads tests. In 1946 after a long and protracted debate, the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 was passed, creating the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) as a civilian agency that would be in charge of the production of nuclear weapons and research facilities, funded through Congress, with oversight provided by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. The AEC was given vast powers of control over secrecy, research, and money, and could seize lands with suspected uranium deposits. Along with its duties towards the production and regulation of nuclear weapons, it was also in charge of stimulating development and regulating civilian nuclear power. The full transference of activities was finalized in January 1947.
In 1975, following the "energy crisis" of the early 1970s and public and congressional discontent with the AEC (in part because of the impossibility to be both a producer and a regulator), it was disassembled into component parts as the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), which assumed most of the AEC's former production, coordination, and research roles, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which assumed its civilian regulation activities.
ERDA was short-lived, however, and in 1977 the U.S. nuclear weapons activities were reorganized under the Department of Energy, which maintains such responsibilities through the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Some functions were taken over or shared by the Department of Homeland Security in 2002. The already-built weapons themselves are in the control of the Strategic Command, which is part of the Department of Defense.
In general, these agencies served to coordinate research and build sites. They generally operated their sites through contractors, however, both private and public (for example, Union Carbide, a private company, ran Oak Ridge National Laboratory for many decades; the University of California, a public educational institution, has run the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore laboratories since their inception, and will jointly manage Los Alamos with the private company Bechtel as of its next contract). Funding was received both through these agencies directly, but also from additional outside agencies, such as the Department of Defense. Each branch of the military also maintained its own nuclear-related research agencies (generally related to delivery systems).
Weapons production complex
This table is not comprehensive, as numerous facilities throughout the United States have contributed to its nuclear weapons program. It includes the major sites related to the U.S. weapons program (past and present), their basic site functions, and their current status of activity. Not listed are the many bases and facilities at which nuclear weapons have been deployed. In addition to deploying weapons on its own soil, during the Cold War, the United States also stationed nuclear weapons in 27 foreign countries and territories, including Okinawa (which was US-controlled until 1971,) Japan (during the occupation immediately following World War II), Greenland, Germany, Taiwan, and French Morocco then independent Morocco.
Proliferation
Early on in the development of its nuclear weapons, the United States relied in part on information-sharing with both the United Kingdom and Canada, as codified in the Quebec Agreement of 1943. These three parties agreed not to share nuclear weapons information with other countries without the consent of the others, an early attempt at nonproliferation. After the development of the first nuclear weapons during World War II, though, there was much debate within the political circles and public sphere of the United States about whether or not the country should attempt to maintain a monopoly on nuclear technology, or whether it should undertake a program of information sharing with other nations (especially its former ally and likely competitor, the Soviet Union), or submit control of its weapons to some sort of international organization (such as the United Nations) who would use them to attempt to maintain world peace. Though fear of a nuclear arms race spurred many politicians and scientists to advocate some degree of international control or sharing of nuclear weapons and information, many politicians and members of the military believed that it was better in the short term to maintain high standards of nuclear secrecy and to forestall a Soviet bomb as long as possible (and they did not believe the USSR would actually submit to international controls in good faith).
Since this path was chosen, the United States was, in its early days, essentially an advocate for the prevention of nuclear proliferation, though primarily for the reason of self-preservation. A few years after the USSR detonated its first weapon in 1949, though, the U.S. under President Dwight D. Eisenhower sought to encourage a program of sharing nuclear information related to civilian nuclear power and nuclear physics in general. The Atoms for Peace program, begun in 1953, was also in part political: the U.S. was better poised to commit various scarce resources, such as enriched uranium, towards this peaceful effort, and to request a similar contribution from the Soviet Union, who had far fewer resources along these lines; thus the program had a strategic justification as well, as was later revealed by internal memos. This overall goal of promoting civilian use of nuclear energy in other countries, while also preventing weapons dissemination, has been labeled by many critics as contradictory and having led to lax standards for a number of decades which allowed a number of other nations, such as China and India, to profit from dual-use technology (purchased from nations other than the U.S.).
The Cooperative Threat Reduction program of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency was established after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 to aid former Soviet bloc countries in the inventory and destruction of their sites for developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and their methods of delivering them (ICBM silos, long-range bombers, etc.). Over $4.4 billion has been spent on this endeavor to prevent purposeful or accidental proliferation of weapons from the former Soviet arsenal.
After India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998, President Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions on the countries. In 1999, however, the sanctions against India were lifted; those against Pakistan were kept in place as a result of the military government that had taken over. Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, President George W. Bush lifted the sanctions against Pakistan as well, in order to get the Pakistani government's help as a conduit for US and NATO forces for operations in Afghanistan.
The U.S. government has officially taken a silent policy towards the nuclear weapons ambitions of the state of Israel, while being exceedingly vocal against proliferation of such weapons in the countries of Iran and North Korea. Until 2005 when the program was cancelled, it was violating its own non-proliferation treaties in the pursuit of so-called nuclear bunker busters. The 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S. was done, in part, on indications that Weapons of mass destruction were being stockpiled (later, stockpiles of previously undeclared nerve agent and mustard gas shells were located in Iraq), and the Bush administration said that its policies on proliferation were responsible for the Libyan government's agreement to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Nuclear disarmament in international law
The United States is one of the five nuclear weapons states with a declared nuclear arsenal under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), of which it was an original drafter and signatory on 1 July 1968 (ratified 5 March 1970). All signatories of the NPT agreed to refrain from aiding in nuclear weapons proliferation to other states.
Further under Article VI of the NPT, all signatories, including the US, agreed to negotiate in good faith to stop the nuclear arms race and to negotiate for complete elimination of nuclear weapons. "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament." The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the preeminent judicial tribunal of international law, in its advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, issued 8 July 1996, unanimously interprets the text of Article VI as implying that:
There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2005 proposed a comprehensive ban on fissile material that would greatly limit the production of weapons of mass destruction. One hundred forty seven countries voted for this proposal but the United States voted against. The US government has also resisted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a binding agreement for negotiations for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, supported by more than 120 nations.
International relations and nuclear weapons
In 1958, the United States Air Force had considered a plan to drop nuclear bombs on China during a confrontation over Taiwan but it was overruled, previously secret documents showed after they were declassified due to the Freedom of Information Act in April 2008. The plan included an initial plan to drop 10–15 kiloton bombs on airfields in Amoy (now called Xiamen) in the event of a Chinese blockade against Taiwan's Offshore Islands.
Occupational illness
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP) began on 31 July 2001. The program provides compensation and health benefits to Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers (employees, former employees, contractors and subcontractors) as well as compensation to certain survivors if the worker is already deceased. By 14 August 2010, the program had already identified 45,799 civilians who lost their health (including 18,942 who developed cancer) due to exposure to radiation and toxic substances while producing nuclear weapons for the United States.
Current status
The United States is one of the five recognized nuclear powers by the signatories of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). As of 2017, the US has an estimated 4,018 nuclear weapons in either deployment or storage. This figure compares to a peak of 31,225 total warheads in 1967 and 22,217 in 1989, and does not include "several thousand" warheads that have been retired and scheduled for dismantlement. The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, is the only location in the United States where weapons from the aging nuclear arsenal can be refurbished or dismantled.
In 2009 and 2010, the administration of President Barack Obama declared policies that would invalidate the Bush-era policy for use of nuclear weapons and its motions to develop new ones. First, in a prominent 2009 speech, U.S. President Barack Obama outlined a goal of "a world without nuclear weapons". To that goal, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new START treaty on 8 April 2010, to reduce the number of active nuclear weapons from 2,200 to 1,550. That same week Obama also revised U.S. policy on the use of nuclear weapons in a Nuclear Posture Review required of all presidents, declaring for the first time that the U.S. would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear, NPT-compliant states. The policy also renounces development of any new nuclear weapons.
, the Trump administration has outlined plans to modernize all legs of the nuclear triad.
, American nuclear forces on land consist of 400 Minuteman III ICBMs spread among 450 operational launchers. Those in the seas consist of 14 nuclear-capable Ohio-class Trident submarines, nine in the Pacific and five in the Atlantic. Nuclear capabilities in the air are provided by 60 nuclear-capable heavy bombers, 20 B-2 bombers and 40 B-52s.
The Air Force has modernized its Minuteman III missiles to last through 2030, and a Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) is set to begin replacing them in 2029. The Navy has undertaken efforts to extend the operational lives of its missiles in warheads past 2020; it is also producing new Columbia-class submarines to replace the Ohio fleet beginning 2031. The Air Force is also retiring the nuclear cruise missiles of its B-52s, leaving only half nuclear-capable. It intends to procure a new long-range bomber, the B-21, and a new long-range standoff (LRSO) cruise missile in the 2020s.
Nuclear disarmament movement
In the early 1980s, the revival of the nuclear arms race triggered large protests about nuclear weapons. On 12 June 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history. International Day of Nuclear Disarmament protests were held on 20 June 1983 at 50 sites across the United States. There were many Nevada Desert Experience protests and peace camps at the Nevada Test Site during the 1980s and 1990s.
There have also been protests by anti-nuclear groups at the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant, the Idaho National Laboratory, Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository proposal, the Hanford Site, the Nevada Test Site, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and transportation of nuclear waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
On 1 May 2005, 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades. In May 2010, some 25,000 people, including members of peace organizations and 1945 atomic bomb survivors, marched from downtown New York to the United Nations headquarters, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Some scientists and engineers have opposed nuclear weapons, including Paul M. Doty, Hermann Joseph Muller, Linus Pauling, Eugene Rabinowitch, M.V. Ramana and Frank N. von Hippel. In recent years, many elder statesmen have also advocated nuclear disarmament. Sam Nunn, William Perry, Henry Kissinger, and George Shultz—have called upon governments to embrace the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons, and in various op-ed columns have proposed an ambitious program of urgent steps to that end. The four have created the Nuclear Security Project to advance this agenda. Organizations such as Global Zero, an international non-partisan group of 300 world leaders dedicated to achieving nuclear disarmament, have also been established.
United States strategic nuclear weapons arsenal
New START Treaty Aggregate Numbers of Strategic Offensive Arms, 1 March 2019
Notes:
Each heavy bomber is counted as one warhead (The New START Treaty)
The nuclear weapon delivery capability has been removed from B-1 heavy bombers.
See also
Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
Global Security Institute
History of nuclear weapons
International Day against Nuclear Tests
List of nuclear weapons tests
National Security Strategy (United States)
Nuclear terrorism
Nuclear-free zone
U.S. nuclear weapons in Japan
United States Strategic Command
Notes
References
Notes 2
Sources
Biello, David. "A Need for New Warheads?" Scientific American, November 2007
Hacker, Barton C. Elements of Controversy: The Atomic Energy Commission and Radiation Safety in Nuclear Weapons Testing, 1947–1974. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994.
Hansen, Chuck. U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History. Arlington, TX: Aerofax, 1988.
Schwartz, Stephen I. Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998. 50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons | Brookings Institution
Weart, Spencer R. Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Woolf, Amy F. U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 8 August 2017.
Young, Ken and Schilling, Warner R. Super Bomb: Organizational Conflict and the Development of the Hydrogen Bomb (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2019).
Further reading
"Presidency in the Nuclear Age", conference and forum at the JFK Library, Boston, 12 October 2009. Four panels: "The Race to Build the Bomb and the Decision to Use It", "Cuban Missile Crisis and the First Nuclear Test Ban Treaty", "The Cold War and the Nuclear Arms Race", and "Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, and the Presidency".
External links
Video archive of US Nuclear Testing at sonicbomb.com
Nuclear Threat Initiative: United States
NDRC's data on the US Nuclear Stockpile, 1945–2002
Snapshot of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, April 2004 by the Los Alamos Study Group
New nuclear warhead design for US
Annotated bibliography of U. S. nuclear weapons programs from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
Cold War history of the United States
United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Department of Energy |
22053 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network%20effect | Network effect | In economics, a network effect (also called network externality or demand-side economies of scale) is the phenomenon by which the value or utility a user derives from a good or service depends on the number of users of compatible products. Network effects are typically positive, resulting in a given user deriving more value from a product as more users join the same network. The adoption of a product by an additional user can be broken into two effects: an increase in the value to all other users ( "total effect") and also the enhancement of other non-users' motivation for using the product ("marginal effect").
Network effects can be direct or indirect. Direct network effects arise when a given user's utility increases with the number of other users of the same product or technology, meaning that adoption of a product by different users is complementary. This effect is separate from effects related to price, such as a benefit to existing users resulting from price decreases as more users join. Direct network effects can be seen with social networking services, including Twitter, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and LinkedIn; telecommunications devices like the telephone; and instant messaging services such as MSN, AIM or QQ. Indirect (or cross-group) network effects arise when there are "at least two different customer groups that are interdependent, and the utility of at least one group grows as the other group(s) grow". For example, hardware may become more valuable to consumers with the growth of compatible software.
Network effects are commonly mistaken for economies of scale, which describe decreasing average production costs in relation to the total volume of units produced. Economies of scale are a common phenomenon in traditional industries such as manufacturing, whereas network effects are most prevalent in new economy industries, particularly information and communication technologies. Network effects are the demand side counterpart of economies of scale, as they function by increasing a customer's willingness to pay due rather than decreasing the supplier's average cost.
Upon reaching critical mass, a bandwagon effect can result. As the network continues to become more valuable with each new adopter, more people are incentivised to adopt, resulting in a positive feedback loop. Multiple equilibria and market tipping are two key potential outcomes in markets that exhibit network effects. Consumer expectations are key in determining which outcomes will result.
Origins
Network effects were a central theme in the arguments of Theodore Vail, the first post-patent president of Bell Telephone, in gaining a monopoly on US telephone services. In 1908, when he presented the concept in Bell's annual report, there were over 4,000 local and regional telephone exchanges, most of which were eventually merged into the Bell System.
Network effects were popularized by Robert Metcalfe, stated as Metcalfe's law. Metcalfe was one of the co-inventors of Ethernet and a co-founder of the company 3Com. In selling the product, Metcalfe argued that customers needed Ethernet cards to grow above a certain critical mass if they were to reap the benefits of their network. According to Metcalfe, the rationale behind the sale of networking cards was that the cost of the network was directly proportional to the number of cards installed, but the value of the network was proportional to the square of the number of users. This was expressed algebraically as having a cost of N, and a value of N2. While the actual numbers behind this proposition were never firm, the concept allowed customers to share access to expensive resources like disk drives and printers, send e-mail, and eventually access the Internet.
The economic theory of the network effect was advanced significantly between 1985 and 1995 by researchers Michael L. Katz, Carl Shapiro, Joseph Farrell, and Garth Saloner. Author, high-tech entrepreneur Rod Beckstrom presented a mathematical model for describing networks that are in a state of positive network effect at BlackHat and Defcon in 2009 and also presented the "inverse network effect" with an economic model for defining it as well. Because of the positive feedback often associated with the network effect, system dynamics can be used as a modelling method to describe the phenomena. Word of mouth and the Bass diffusion model are also potentially applicable. The next major advance occurred between 2000 and 2003 when researchers Geoffrey G Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, Jean-Charles Rochet and Jean Tirole independently developed the two-sided market literature showing how network externalities that cross distinct groups can lead to free pricing for one of those groups.
Evidence and Consequences
New research addresses an apparent paradox: the web is a source of continual innovation, and yet it appears increasingly dominated by a small number of dominant players - one of the most visible consequences of network effects. We now know the impact on economic diversity is due to a variety of network effects with the variety of online players worldwide shrinking rapidly, despite the fact that the overall size of the worldwide web continues to expand and new categories of services offered online continues to rise.
This research tackles this paradox by using large-scale longitudinal data sets from social media to measure the distribution of attention across the whole online economy over more than a decade from 2006 until 2017.
While the diversity of sources is in decline, there is a countervailing force of continually increasing functionality with new services, products and applications — such as music streaming services (Spotify), file sharing programs (Dropbox) and messaging platforms (Messenger, Whatsapp and Snapchat). Another major finding was the dramatic increase in the “infant mortality” rate of websites — with the dominant players in each functional niche - once established guarding their turf more staunchly than ever.
Economics
Network economics refers to business economics that benefit from the network effect. This is when the value of a good or service increases when others buy the same good or service. Examples are website such as EBay, or iVillage where the community comes together and shares thoughts to help the website become a better business organization.
In sustainability, network economics refers to multiple professionals (architects, designers, or related businesses) all working together to develop sustainable products and technologies. The more companies are involved in environmentally friendly production, the easier and cheaper it becomes to produce new sustainable products. For instance, if no one produces sustainable products, it is difficult and expensive to design a sustainable house with custom materials and technology. But due to network economics, the more industries are involved in creating such products, the easier it is to design an environmentally sustainable building.
Another benefit of network economics in a certain field is improvement that results from competition and networking within an industry.
Adoption and competition
Critical mass
In the early phases of a network technology, incentives to adopt the new technology are low. After a certain number of people have adopted the technology, network effects become significant enough that adoption becomes a dominant strategy. This point is called critical mass. At the critical mass point, the value obtained from the good or service is greater than or equal to the price paid for the good or service.
When a product reaches critical mass, network effects will drive subsequent growth until a stable balance is reached. Therefore, a key business concern must then be how to attract users prior to reaching critical mass. Critical quality is closely related to consumer expectations, which will be affected by price and quality of products or services, the company's reputation and the growth path of the network. Thus, one way is to rely on extrinsic motivation, such as a payment, a fee waiver, or a request for friends to sign up. A more natural strategy is to build a system that has enough value without network effects, at least to early adopters. Then, as the number of users increases, the system becomes even more valuable and is able to attract a wider user base.
Beyond critical mass, the increasing number of subscribers generally cannot continue indefinitely. After a certain point, most networks become either congested or saturated, stopping future uptake. Congestion occurs due to overuse. The applicable analogy is that of a telephone network. While the number of users is below the congestion point, each additional user adds additional value to every other customer. However, at some point, the addition of an extra user exceeds the capacity of the existing system. After this point, each additional user decreases the value obtained by every other user. In practical terms, each additional user increases the total system load, leading to busy signals, the inability to get a dial tone, and poor customer support. Assuming the congestion point is below the potential market size, the next critical point is where the value obtained again equals the price paid. The network will cease to grow at this point if system capacity is not improved. Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are networks designed to distribute load among their user pool. This theoretically allows P2P networks to scale indefinitely. The P2P based telephony service Skype benefits from this effect and its growth is limited primarily by market saturation.
Market tipping
Network effects give rise to the potential outcome of market tipping, defined as "the tendency of one system to pull away from its rivals in popularity once it has gained an initial edge". Tipping results in a market in which only one good or service dominates and competition is stifled. This is because network effects tend to incentivise users to coordinate their adoption of a single product. Therefore, tipping can result in a natural form of market concentration in markets that display network effects. However, the presence of network effects does not necessarily imply that a market will tip; the following additional conditions must be met:
The utility derived by users from network effects must exceed the utility they derive from differentiation
Users must have high costs of multihoming (i.e. adopting more than one competing networks)
Users must have high switching costs
If any of these three conditions are not satisfied, the market may fail to tip and multiple products with significant market shares may coexist. One such example is the U.S. instant messaging market, which remained an oligopoly despite significant network effects. This can be attributed to the low multi-homing and switching costs faced by users.
Market tipping does not imply permanent success in a given market. Competition can be reintroduced into the market due to shocks such as the development of new technologies. Additionally, if the price is raised above customers' willingness to pay, this may reverse market tipping.
Multiple equilibria and expectations
Networks effects often result in multiple potential market equilibrium outcomes. The key determinant in which equilibrium will manifest are the expectations of the market participants, which are self-fulfilling. Because users are incentivised to coordinate their adoption, user will tend to adopt the product that they expect to draw the largest number of users. These expectations may be shaped by path dependence, such as a perceived first-mover advantage, which can result in lock-in. The most commonly cited example of path dependence is the QWERTY keyboard, which owes its ubiquity to its establishment of an early lead in the keyboard layout industry and high switching costs, rather than any inherent advantage over competitors. Other key influences of adoption expectations can be reputational (e.g. a firm that has previously produced high quality products may be favoured over a new firm).
Markets with network effects may result in inefficient equilibrium outcomes. With simultaneous adoption, users may fail to coordinate towards a single agreed-upon product, resulting in splintering among different networks, or may coordinate to lock-in to a different product than the one that is best for them.
Technology lifecycle
If some existing technology or company whose benefits are largely based on network effects starts to lose market share against a challenger such as a disruptive technology or open standards based competition, the benefits of network effects will reduce for the incumbent, and increase for the challenger. In this model, a tipping point is eventually reached at which the network effects of the challenger dominate those of the former incumbent, and the incumbent is forced into an accelerating decline, whilst the challenger takes over the incumbent's former position.
Sony's Betamax and Victor Company of Japan (JVC)'s video home system (VHS) can both be used for video cassette recorders (VCR), but the two technologies are not compatible. Therefore, the VCR that is suitable for one type of cassette cannot fit in another. VHS's technology gradually surpassed Betamax in the competition. In the end, Betamax lost its original market share and was replaced by VHS.
Negative network externalities
Negative network externalities, in the mathematical sense, are those that have a negative effect compared to normal (positive) network effects. Just as positive network externalities (network effects) cause positive feedback and exponential growth, negative network externalities create negative feedback and exponential decay. In nature, negative network externalities are the forces that pull towards equilibrium, are responsible for stability, and represent physical limitations keeping systems bounded.
Besides, Negative network externalities has four characteristics, which are namely, more login retries, longer query times, longer download times and more download attempts. Therefore, congestion occurs when the efficiency of a network decreases as more people use it, and this reduces the value to people already using it. Traffic congestion that overloads the freeway and network congestion on connections with limited bandwidth both display negative network externalities.
Braess's paradox suggests that adding paths through a network can have a negative effect on performance of the network.
Interoperability
Interoperability has the effect of making the network bigger and thus increases the external value of the network to consumers. Interoperability achieves this primarily by increasing potential connections and secondarily by attracting new participants to the network. Other benefits of interoperability include reduced uncertainty, reduced lock-in, commoditization and competition based on price.
Interoperability can be achieved through standardization or other cooperation. Companies involved in fostering interoperability face a tension between cooperating with their competitors to grow the potential market for products and competing for market share.
Compatibility and incompatibility
Product compatibility is closely related to network externalities in company's competition, which refers to two systems that can be operated together without changing. Compatible products are characterized by better matching with customers, so they can enjoy all the benefits of the network without having to purchase products from the same company. However, not only products of compatibility will intensify competition between companies, this will make users who had purchased products lose their advantages, but also proprietary networks may raise the industry entry standards. Compared to large companies with better reputation or strength, weaker companies or small networks will more inclined to choose compatible products.
Besides, the compatibility of products is conducive to the company's increase in market share. For example, the Windows system is famous for its operating compatibility, thereby satisfying consumers' diversification of other applications. As the supplier of Windows systems, Microsoft benefits from indirect network effects, which cause the growing of the company's market share.
Incompatibility is the opposite of compatibility. Because incompatibility of products will aggravate market segmentation and reduce efficiency, and also harm consumer interests and enhance competition. The result of the competition between incompatible networks depends on the complete sequential of adoption and the early preferences of the adopters. Effective competition determines the market share of companies, which is historically important. Since the installed base can directly bring more network profit and increase the consumers' expectations, which will have a positive impact on the smooth implementation of subsequent network effects.
Open versus closed standards
In communication and information technologies, open standards and interfaces are often developed through the participation of multiple companies and are usually perceived to provide mutual benefit. But, in cases in which the relevant communication protocols or interfaces are closed standards, the network effect can give the company controlling those standards monopoly power. The Microsoft corporation is widely seen by computer professionals as maintaining its monopoly through these means. One observed method Microsoft uses to put the network effect to its advantage is called Embrace, extend and extinguish.
Mirabilis is an Israeli start-up which pioneered instant messaging (IM) and was bought by America Online. By giving away their ICQ product for free and preventing interoperability between their client software and other products, they were able to temporarily dominate the market for instant messaging. The IM technology has completed the use from the home to the workplace, because of its faster processing speed and simplified process characteristics. Because of the network effect, new IM users gained much more value by choosing to use the Mirabilis system (and join its large network of users) than they would use a competing system. As was typical for that era, the company never made any attempt to generate profits from its dominant position before selling the company.
Examples
The Telephone
Network effects are the incremental benefit gained by each user for each new user that joins a network. An example of a direct network effect is the telephone. Originally when only a small number of people owned a telephone the value it provided was minimal. Not only did other people need to own a telephone for it to be useful, but it also had to be connected to the network through the users home. As technology advanced it became more affordable for people to own a telephone. This created more value and utility due to the increase in users. Eventually increased usage through exponential growth led to the telephone is used by almost every household adding more value to the network for all users. Without the network effect and technological advances the telephone would have no where near the amount of value or utility as it does today.
Financial exchanges
Stock exchanges and derivatives exchanges feature a network effect. Market liquidity is a major determinant of transaction cost in the sale or purchase of a security, as a bid–ask spread exists between the price at which a purchase can be made versus the price at which the sale of the same security can be made. As the number of sellers and buyers in the exchange, who have the symmetric information increases, liquidity increases, and transaction costs decrease. This then attracts a larger number of buyers and sellers to the exchange.
The network advantage of financial exchanges is apparent in the difficulty that startup exchanges have in dislodging a dominant exchange. For example, the Chicago Board of Trade has retained overwhelming dominance of trading in US Treasury bond futures despite the startup of Eurex US trading of identical futures contracts. Similarly, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has maintained dominance in trading of Eurobond interest rate futures despite a challenge from Euronext.Liffe.
Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, also feature network effects. Bitcoin's unique properties make it an attractive asset to users and investors. The more users that join the network, the more valuable and secure it becomes. This method creates incentive for users to join so that when the network and community grows, a network effect occurs, making it more likely that new people will also join. Bitcoin provides its users with financial value through the network effect which may lead to more investors due to the appeal of financial gain. This is an example of an indirect network effect as the value only increases due to the initial network being created.
Software
The widely used computer software benefits from powerful network effects. The software-purchase characteristic is that it is easily influenced by the opinions of others, so the customer base of the software is the key to realizing a positive network effect. Although customers' motivation for choosing software is related to the product itself, media interaction and word-of-mouth recommendations from purchased customers can still increase the possibility of software being applied to other customers who have not purchased it, thereby resulting in network effects.
In 2007 Apple released the iPhone followed by the app store. Most iPhone apps rely heavily on the existence of strong network effects. This enables the software to grow in popularity very quickly and spread to a large userbase with very limited marketing needed. The Freemium business model has evolved to take advantage of these network effects by releasing a free version that will not limit the adoption or any users and then charge for premium features as the primary source of revenue. Furthermore, some software companies will launch free trial versions during the trial period to attract buyers and reduce their uncertainty. The duration of free time is related to the network effect. The more positive feedback the company received, the shorter the free trial time will be.
Web sites
Many web sites benefit from a network effect. One example is web marketplaces and exchanges. For example, eBay would not be a particularly useful site if auctions were not competitive. As the number of users grows on eBay, auctions grow more competitive, pushing up the prices of bids on items. This makes it more worthwhile to sell on eBay and brings more sellers onto eBay, which, in turn, drives prices down again due to increased supply. Increased supply brings even more buyers to eBay. Essentially, as the number of users of eBay grows, prices fall and supply increases, and more and more people find the site to be useful.
Network effects were used as justification in business models by some of the dot-com companies in the late 1990s. These firms operated under the belief that when a new market comes into being which contains strong network effects, firms should care more about growing their market share than about becoming profitable. The justification was that market share would determine which firm could set technical and marketing standards and giving these companies a first-mover advantage.
Social networking websites are good examples. The more people register onto a social networking website, the more useful the website is to its registrants.
Google uses the network effect in its advertising business with its Google AdSense service. AdSense places ads on many small sites, such as blogs, using Google technology to determine which ads are relevant to which blogs. Thus, the service appears to aim to serve as an exchange (or ad network) for matching many advertisers with many small sites. In general, the more blogs AdSense can reach, the more advertisers it will attract, making it the most attractive option for more blogs.
By contrast, the value of a news site is primarily proportional to the quality of the articles, not to the number of other people using the site. Similarly, the first generation of search engines experienced little network effect, as the value of the site was based on the value of the search results. This allowed Google to win users away from Yahoo! without much trouble, once users believed that Google's search results were superior. Some commentators mistook the value of the Yahoo! brand (which does increase as more people know of it) for a network effect protecting its advertising business.
Rail gauge
There are strong network effects in the initial choice of rail gauge, and in gauge conversion decisions. Even when placing isolated rails not connected to any other lines, track layers usually choose a standard rail gauge so they can use off-the-shelf rolling stock. Although a few manufacturers make rolling stock that can adjust to different rail gauges, most manufacturers make rolling stock that only works with one of the standard rail gauges. This even applies to urban rail systems where historically tramways and to a lesser extent metros would come in a wide array of different gauges, nowadays virtually all new networks are built to a handful of gauges and overwhelmingly standard gauge.
Credit cards
For credit cards that are now widely used, large-scale applications on the market are closely related to network effects. Credit card, as one of the currency payment methods in the current economy, which was originated in 1949. Early research on the circulation of credit cards at the retail level found that credit card interest rates were not affected by macroeconomic interest rates and remained almost unchanged. Later, credit cards gradually entered the network level due to changes in policy priorities and became a popular trend in payment in the 1980s. Different levels of credit cards separate benefit from two types of network effects. The application of credit cards related to external network effects, which is because when this has become a payment method, and more people use credit cards. Each additional person uses the same credit card, the value of rest people who use the credit card will increase. Besides, the credit card system at the network level could be seen as a two-sided market. On the one hand, the number of cardholders attracts merchants to use credit cards as a payment method. On the other hand, an increasing number of merchants can also attract more new cardholders. In other words, the use of credit cards has increased significantly among merchants which leads to increased value. This can conversely increase the cardholder's credit card value and the number of users. Moreover, credit card services also display a network effect between merchant discounts and credit accessibility. When credit accessibility increases which greater sales can be obtained, merchants are willing to be charged more discounts by credit card issuers.
Visa has become a leader in the electronic payment industry through the network effect of credit cards as its competitive advantage. Till 2016, Visa's credit card market share has risen from a quarter to as much as half in four years. Visa is benefit from the network effect. Since every additional Visa cardholder is more attractive to merchants, and merchants can also attract more new cardholders through the brand. In other words, the popularity and convenience of Visa in the electronic payment market, lead more people and merchants choose to use Visa, which greatly increases the value of Visa.
See also
References
External links
Coordination and Lock-In: Competition with Switching Costs and Network Effects, Joseph Farrell and Paul Klemperer.
Network Externalities (Effects), S. J. Liebowitz, Stephen E. Margolis.
An Overview of Network Effects, Arun Sundararajan.
The Economics of Networks, Nicholas Economides.
Network Economics: An Introduction by Anna Nagurney of the Isenberg School of Management at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Supply chain network economics by Anna Nagurney
Business models
Economics effects
Monopoly (economics)
Networks
Technological change
Transport economics |
6609952 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoWall | GeoWall | A GeoWall is a low cost interactive 3D stereoscopic projection system. It consists of a computer with a dual-output graphics card, two projectors, a rack to hold them, polarizing filters, silver screen, a pair of cheap polarized glasses for each user, and (optionally) one or two monitors. This can be put together for well under US$10,000, or bought as a turnkey system at a higher price from various vendors. There are equivalent systems under other names e.g. passive 3D display.
This article uses the word 'GeoWall' as a convenient trisyllabic equivalent for "low-cost polarization-based dual-projector interactive 3D stereoscopic system". Interactivity is a crucial aspect to GeoWalls, particularly for real-time data exploration. Without interactivity, a GeoWall is merely a system for viewing 3D films – a cheap 3D IMAX on a smaller screen.
GeoWalls are examples of passive Virtual Reality, in the sense that there is no head tracking. Instead of a complete immersive experience for one user, there is a partial immersive experience for multiple users. This makes it suitable for classrooms, group presentations, aCloud.
Origins of the name
The first GeoWall was built in January 2001 by Prof. Jason Leigh at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, home of the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE), when asked by Paul Morin if a stripped-down single-wall CAVE would provide a level of 3D immersion acceptable for exploring geoscience data at a price affordable to smaller institutions like museums and academic departments. So instead of a complete CAVE, it was only a single wall, and being used primarily for geology, it was a "geology wall" or GeoWall.
Shortly after the first GeoWall was built, the GeoWall Consortium was created to support the development and distribution of software and data for the GeoWall users. Today, the GeoWall Consortium remains an active user group, whose members have made available free and/or open-source software, content, and documentation. Over 500 GeoWalls have been built since 2005 and the numbers continue to grow. The GeoWall Consortium can be accessed through its website geowall.org and mailing list.
Data Interactively Explored with GeoWalls
GeoWalls have been used to explore data in several domains. Stereo photographs and movies can be viewed on a GeoWall, as well as most 3D models. Here are some examples of other data sets that are freely available. All can be modified to work on regular single-screen computers.
GeoWall Consortium has several visualizations, including
Global Earthquakes.
Virtual Harlem : Recreation of the New York suburb from the 1930s. Linux only.
Interactive San Diego Flythrough
AstroWall : Simulations of stars orbiting under Newton's Law of Gravity in a Plummer potential, Moon orbit details. Windows only.
Cosmic Ray Showers : animated simulations showing what happens when a high-energy particle from outer space hits the Earth's atmosphere and creates a shower of other subatomic particles. Windows/Linux.
Large Scale Structure of the Universe : Hundreds of thousands of galaxies mapped by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Windows/Linux.
Visualization of 3D Mathematics : Surfaces associated with several equations, Klein bottles, etc. Very pretty.
Black Hole Discovery : Observed and extrapolated orbits of a dozen stars orbiting the center of the galaxy. This data was used by UCLA researchers in a 2000 Nature paper to demonstrate that there is a black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Windows/Linux.
TerrainFly : simple flight simulator, but over Mars.
Z-Flux : Interactive, real-time rendering of various astronomical animations, originally designed for educational purposes. Free, Windows.
Nick Schwarz has a list of more GeoWall resources.
Software that works on GeoWalls
Wallview : a simple 'Powerpoint for GeoWalls' that can display stereo photograph pairs. Very useful, despite interactivity limited to zooming and moving pictures about. Free, Windows only.
Immersaview : displays 3d data in IV (Open Inventor) and VRML formats, both single models and time-varying model sequences. Comes with demos of ant innards, earthquakes zones, etc. Open Source, Windows/Mac/Linux.
Partiview : displays large, static or dynamic, particle-based datasets. Particles can be textured. Open Source, Windows/Linux. (Documentation on how to use Partiview on GeoWalls.)
PokeScope. For aligning pairs of stereo photographs. Commercial, Windows only.
WalkAbout. For exploring VRML models, particularly for earth science data. Open Source, Windows/Mac/Linux
gOpenMol. Molecular visualizer for computational chemistry. Works on GeoWalls when run in side-by-side stereo mode. Free, open source, Windows/Linux/Sun/AIX.
ArcGIS : commercial mapping software. Any ArcScene image can be displayed on a GeoWall.
Graphics Cards for GeoWalls
The following graphics cards have been reported as capable of supporting GeoWalls. Geowall.org says that "on the most general level the graphics card needs to have two monitor outputs to provide output to left and right projector".
NVIDIA GeForce2 Twinview
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4400/Ti4600
Quadro4 550,700,750, 900 XGL, FX2000
ATI Radeon X800 XT
References
GeoWall Consortium
GeoWallTech mailing list
GeoWall Project Expands the Window Into Earth Science : New York Times Circuits article from 3 March 2005 by Henry Fountain about the creation of the GeoWall at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL).
COSMUS is an informal Chicago-based group with several freely available data models from the astronomical sciences.
Low-cost Stereo Virtual Reality at PMEL (Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory). Good introduction to 3d Stereo and GeoWall setup.
Stereographics : several useful articles by Paul Bourke.
Future Directions in Astronomy Visualisation C.J. Fluke, P.D. Bourke, D. O'Donovan, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Vol 23, Number 1, 2006
Visualization of 3D Mathematics by Jonathan Rogness. Tutorials and downloadable demos visualizing mathematical data. Uses both GeoWalls and the Java applet LiveGraphics3d.
Passive 3D Display with Two Projectors by Barco Systems. Good description of an equivalent system.
VisMini equivalent system from Visbox, Inc.
Projectors
Virtual reality |
192455 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP | XMPP | Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), it enables the near-real-time exchange of structured data between two or more network entities. Designed to be extensible, the protocol offers a multitude of applications beyond traditional IM in the broader realm of message-oriented middleware, including signalling for VoIP, video, file transfer, gaming and other uses.
Unlike most commercial instant messaging protocols, XMPP is defined in an open standard in the application layer. The architecture of the XMPP network is similar to email; anyone can run their own XMPP server and there is no central master server. This federated open system approach allows users to interoperate with others on any server using a 'JID' user account, similar to an email address. XMPP implementations can be developed using any software license and many server, client, and library implementations are distributed as free and open-source software. Numerous freeware and commercial software implementations also exist.
Originally developed by the open-source community, the protocols were formalized as an approved instant messaging standard in 2004 and has been continuously developed with new extensions and features. Various XMPP client software are available on both desktop and mobile platforms and devices - by 2003 the protocol was used by over ten million people worldwide on the network, according to the XMPP Standards Foundation.
Protocol characteristics
Decentralization
The XMPP network architecture is reminiscent of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a client–server model; clients do not talk directly to one another as it is decentralized - anyone can run a server. By design, there is no central authoritative server as there is with messaging services such as AIM, WLM, WhatsApp or Telegram. Some confusion often arises on this point as there is a public XMPP server being run at jabber.org, to which many users subscribe. However, anyone may run their own XMPP server on their own domain.
Addressing
Every user on the network has a unique XMPP address, called JID (for historical reasons, XMPP addresses are often called Jabber IDs). The JID is structured like an email address with a username and a domain name (or IP address) for the server where that user resides, separated by an at sign (@) - for example, “[email protected]“: here alice is the username and example.com the server with which the user is registered.
Since a user may wish to log in from multiple locations, they may specify a resource. A resource identifies a particular client belonging to the user (for example home, work, or mobile). This may be included in the JID by appending a slash followed by the name of the resource. For example, the full JID of a user's mobile account could be [email protected]/mobile.
Each resource may have specified a numerical value called priority. Messages simply sent to [email protected] will go to the client with highest priority, but those sent to [email protected]/mobile will go only to the mobile client. The highest priority is the one with largest numerical value.
JIDs without a username part are also valid, and may be used for system messages and control of special features on the server. A resource remains optional for these JIDs as well.
The means to route messages based on a logical endpoint identifier - the JID, instead of by an explicit IP Address present opportunities to use XMPP as an Overlay network implementation on top of different underlay networks.
XMPP via HTTP
The original and "native" transport protocol for XMPP is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), using open-ended XML streams over long-lived TCP connections. As an alternative to the TCP transport, the XMPP community has also developed an HTTP transport for web clients as well as users behind restricted firewalls. In the original specification, XMPP could use HTTP in two ways: polling and binding. The polling method, now deprecated, essentially implies messages stored on a server-side database are being fetched (and posted) regularly by an XMPP client by way of HTTP 'GET' and 'POST' requests. The binding method, implemented using Bidirectional-streams Over Synchronous HTTP (BOSH), allows servers to push messages to clients as soon as they are sent. This push model of notification is more efficient than polling, where many of the polls return no new data.
Because the client uses HTTP, most firewalls allow clients to fetch and post messages without any hindrances. Thus, in scenarios where the TCP port used by XMPP is blocked, a server can listen on the normal HTTP port and the traffic should pass without problems. Various websites let people sign into XMPP via a browser. Furthermore, there are open public servers that listen on standard http (port 80) and https (port 443) ports, and hence allow connections from behind most firewalls. However, the IANA-registered port for BOSH is actually 5280, not 80.
Extensibility
The XMPP Standards Foundation or XSF (formerly the Jabber Software Foundation) is active in developing open XMPP extensions, so called XEP. However, extensions can also be defined by any individual, software project, or organization. To maintain interoperability, common extensions are managed by the XSF. XMPP applications beyond IM include: chat rooms, network management, content syndication, collaboration tools, file sharing, gaming, remote systems control and monitoring, geolocation, middleware and cloud computing, VoIP, and identity services.
Building on its capability to support discovery across local network domains, XMPP is well-suited for cloud computing where virtual machines, networks, and firewalls would otherwise present obstacles to alternative service discovery and presence-based solutions. Cloud computing and storage systems rely on various forms of communication over multiple levels, including not only messaging between systems to relay state but also the migration or distribution of larger objects, such as storage or virtual machines. Along with authentication and in-transit data protection, XMPP can be applied at a variety of levels and may prove ideal as an extensible middleware or Message-oriented middleware (MOM) protocol.
Current limitations
At the moment, XMPP does not support Quality of Service (QoS); assured delivery of messages has to be built on top of the XMPP layer. There are two XEPs proposed to deal with this issue, XEP-0184 Message delivery receipts which is currently a draft standard, and XEP-0333 Chat Markers which is considered experimental.
Since XML is text based, normal XMPP has a higher network overhead compared to purely binary solutions. This issue was being addressed by the experimental XEP-0322: Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format, where XML is serialized in a very efficient binary manner, especially in schema-informed mode. This XEP is currently deferred.
In-band binary data transfer is limited. Binary data must be first base64 encoded before it can be transmitted in-band. Therefore, any significant amount of binary data (e.g., file transfers) is best transmitted out-of-band, using in-band messages to coordinate. The best example of this is the Jingle XMPP Extension Protocol, XEP-0166.
Features
Peer-to-peer sessions
Using the extension called Jingle, XMPP can provide an open means to support machine-to-machine or peer-to-peer communications across a diverse set of networks. This feature is mainly used for IP telephony (VoIP).
Multi-user chat
XMPP supports conferences with multiple users, using the specification Multi-User Chat (MUC) (XEP-0045). From the point of view of a normal user, it is comparable to Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
Security and encryption
XMPP servers can be isolated (e.g., on a company intranet), and secure authentication (SASL) and point-to-point encryption (TLS) have been built into the core XMPP specifications, as well as
Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) is an extension of XMPP enabling encryption of messages and data. It has since been replaced by a better extension, multi-end-to-multi-end encryption (OMEMO, XEP-0384) end-to-end encryption between users. This gives a higher level of security, by encrypting all data from the source client and decrypting again at the target client; the server operator cannot decrypt the data they are forwarding.
Messages can also be encrypted with OpenPGP, for example with the software Gajim.
Service discovery
While several service discovery protocols exist today (such as zeroconf or the Service Location Protocol), XMPP provides a solid base for the discovery of services residing locally or across a network, and the availability of these services (via presence information), as specified by XEP-0030 DISCO.
Connecting to other protocols
One of the original design goals of the early Jabber open-source community was enabling users to connect to multiple instant messaging systems (especially non-XMPP systems) through a single client application. This was done through entities called transports or gateways to other instant messaging protocols like ICQ, AIM or Yahoo Messenger, but also to protocols such as SMS, IRC or email. Unlike multi-protocol clients, XMPP provides this access at the server level by communicating via special gateway services running alongside an XMPP server. Any user can "register" with one of these gateways by providing the information needed to log on to that network, and can then communicate with users of that network as though they were XMPP users. Thus, such gateways function as client proxies (the gateway authenticates on the user's behalf on the non-XMPP service). As a result, any client that fully supports XMPP can access any network with a gateway without extra code in the client, and without the need for the client to have direct access to the Internet. However, the client proxy model may violate terms of service on the protocol used (although such terms of service are not legally enforceable in several countries) and also requires the user to send their IM username and password to the third-party site that operates the transport (which may raise privacy and security concerns).
Another type of gateway is a server-to-server gateway, which enables a non-XMPP server deployment to connect to native XMPP servers using the built in interdomain federation features of XMPP. Such server-to-server gateways are offered by several enterprise IM software products, including:
IBM Lotus Sametime
Skype for Business Server (formerly named Microsoft Lync Server and Microsoft Office Communications Server – OCS)
Software
XMPP is implemented by many clients, servers, and code libraries. These implementations are provided under a variety of software licenses.
Servers
Numerous XMPP server software exist, some well known ones include ejabberd and Prosody.
Clients
A large number of XMPP client software exist on various modern and legacy platforms, including both graphical and command line based clients. According to the XMPP website, some of the most popular software include Conversations (Android), Converse.js (web browser, Linux, Windows, macOS), Gajim (Windows, Linux), Monal (macOS, iOS), and Swift.IM (macOS, Windows, Linux).
Other clients include: Bombus, ChatSecure, Coccinella, JWChat.org, MCabber, Miranda, Pidgin, Psi, Tkabber, Trillian, and Xabber.
Deployment and distribution
There are thousands of XMPP servers worldwide, many public ones as well as private individuals or organizations running their own servers without commercial intent. Numerous websites show a list of public XMPP servers where users may register at (for example on the XMPP.net website).
Several large public IM services natively use or used XMPP, including LiveJournal's "LJ Talk", Nimbuzz, and HipChat. Various hosting services, such as DreamHost, enable hosting customers to choose XMPP services alongside more traditional web and email services. Specialized XMPP hosting services also exist in form of cloud so that domain owners need not directly run their own XMPP servers, including Cisco Webex Connect, Chrome.pl, Flosoft.biz, i-pobox.net, and hosted.im.
XMPP is also used in deployments of non-IM services, including smart grid systems such as demand response applications, message-oriented middleware, and as a replacement for SMS to provide text messaging on many smartphone clients.
Non-native deployments
Some of the largest messaging providers use, or have been using, various forms of XMPP based protocols in their backend systems without necessarily exposing this fact to their end users. One example is Google, which in August 2005 introduced Google Talk, a combination VoIP and IM system that uses XMPP for instant messaging and as a base for a voice and file transfer signaling protocol called Jingle. The initial launch did not include server-to-server communications; Google enabled that feature on January 17, 2006. Google has since added video functionality to Google Talk, also using the Jingle protocol for signaling. In May 2013, Google announced XMPP compatibility would be dropped from Google Talk for server-to-server federation, although it would retain client-to-server support. In January 2008, AOL introduced experimental XMPP support for its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service, allowing AIM users to communicate using XMPP. However, in March 2008, this service was discontinued. As of May 2011, AOL offers limited XMPP support. In February 2010, the social-networking site Facebook opened up its chat feature to third-party applications via XMPP. Some functionality was unavailable through XMPP, and support was dropped in April 2014. Similarly, in December 2011, Microsoft released an XMPP interface to its Microsoft Messenger service. Skype, its de facto successor, also provided limited XMPP support. Apache Wave is another example.
XMPP is the de facto standard for private chat in gaming related platforms such as Origin, and PlayStation, as well as the now discontinued Xfire and Raptr. Two notable exceptions are Steam and Xbox LIVE; both use their own proprietary messaging protocols.
History and development
Jeremie Miller began working on the Jabber technology in 1998 and released the first version of the jabberd server on January 4, 1999. The early Jabber community focused on open-source software, mainly the jabberd server, but its major outcome proved to be the development of the XMPP protocol.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) formed an XMPP working group in 2002 to formalize the core protocols as an IETF instant messaging and presence technology. The early Jabber protocol, as developed in 1999 and 2000, formed the basis for XMPP as published in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921 in October 2004 (the primary changes during formalization by the IETF's XMPP Working Group were the addition of TLS for channel encryption and SASL for authentication). The XMPP Working group also produced specifications RFC 3922 and RFC 3923. In 2011, RFC 3920 and RFC 3921 were superseded by RFC 6120 and RFC 6121 respectively, with RFC 6122 specifying the XMPP address format. In 2015, RFC 6122 was superseded by RFC 7622. In addition to these core protocols standardized at the IETF, the XMPP Standards Foundation (formerly the Jabber Software Foundation) is active in developing open XMPP extensions.
The first IM service based on XMPP was Jabber.org, which has operated continuously and offered free accounts since 1999. From 1999 until February 2006, the service used jabberd as its server software, at which time it migrated to ejabberd (both of which are free software application servers). In January 2010, the service migrated to the proprietary M-Link server software produced by Isode Ltd.
In September 2008, Cisco Systems acquired Jabber, Inc., the creators of the commercial product Jabber XCP.
The XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) develops and publishes extensions to XMPP through a standards process centered on XMPP Extension Protocols (XEPs, previously known as Jabber Enhancement Proposals - JEPs). The following extensions are in especially wide use:
Data Forms
Service Discovery
Multi-User Chat
Publish-Subscribe and Personal Eventing Protocol
XHTML-IM
File Transfer
Entity Capabilities
HTTP Binding
Jingle for voice and video
Internet of Things
XMPP features such as federation across domains, publish/subscribe, authentication and its security even for mobile endpoints are being used to implement the Internet of Things. Several XMPP extensions are part of the experimental implementation: Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format; Sensor Data; Provisioning; Control; Concentrators; Discovery.
These efforts are documented on a page in the XMPP wiki dedicated to Internet of Things and the XMPP IoT mailing list.
Specifications and standards
The IETF XMPP working group has produced a series of Request for Comments (RFC) documents:
(superseded by RFC 6120)
(superseded by RFC 6121)
(superseded by RFC 5122)
(superseded by RFC 7622)
The most important and most widely implemented of these specifications are:
, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core, which describes client–server messaging using two open-ended XML streams. XML streams consist of <presence/>, <message/> and <iq/> (info/query). A connection is authenticated with Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) and encrypted with Transport Layer Security (TLS).
, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence describes instant messaging (IM), the most common application of XMPP.
, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Address Format describes the rules for XMPP addresses, also called JabberIDs or JIDs. Currently JIDs use PRECIS (as defined in RFC 7564) for handling of Unicode characters outside the ASCII range.
Competing standards
XMPP has often been regarded as a competitor to SIMPLE, based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), as the standard protocol for instant messaging and presence notification.
The XMPP extension for multi-user chat can be seen as a competitor to Internet Relay Chat (IRC), although IRC is far simpler, has far fewer features, and is far more widely used.
The XMPP extensions for publish-subscribe provide many of the same features as the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP).
See also
XMPP clients
Comparison of instant messaging clients
Comparison of instant messaging protocols
Comparison of XMPP server software
Secure communication
SIMPLE
Matrix (protocol)
References
External links
Open list of public XMPP servers
xmpp-iot.org - the XMPP-IoT (Internet of Things) initiative
Real-Time Communications Quick Start Guide
Jabber User Guide
, interviewed by Randal Schwartz and Leo Laporte
Application layer protocols
Cloud standards
Cross-platform software
Instant messaging protocols
Online chat
Open standards
XML-based standards |
58336233 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger%20Needham%20Award | Roger Needham Award | The Roger Needham award is a prize given scientists who are recognised for important contributions made to computer science research The British Computer Society established an annual Roger Needham Award in honour of Roger Needham in 2004. It is a £5000 prize is presented to an individual for making "a distinguished research contribution in computer science by a UK-based researcher within ten years of their PhD." The award is funded by Microsoft Research. The winner of the prize has an opportunity to give a public lecture.
Laureates
Since 2004, laureates have included:
2004 Jane Hillston on Tuning Systems: From Composition to Performance
2005 Ian Horrocks on Ontologies and the Semantic Web
2006 Andrew Fitzgibbon on Computer Vision & the Geometry of Nature
2007 Mark Handley on Evolving the Internet: Challenges, Opportunities and Consequences
2008 Wenfei Fan on A Revival of Data Dependencies for Improving Data Quality
2009 Byron Cook on Proving that programs eventually do something good
2010 on Timing is Everything
2011 Maja Pantić on Machine Understanding of Human Behaviour
2012 on Memory Safety Proofs for the Masses
2013 on Theory and Practice: The Yin and Yang of Intelligent Information Systems
2014 on Mining Biological Networks
2015 on Linking Form and Function, Computationally
2016 Language Learning in Humans and Machines: Making Connections to Make Progress
2017 on Many-Core Programming: How to Go Really Fast Without Crashing
2018 Alexandra Silva
2019
2020
Awards committee
the prize is judged by an awards committee with the following members:
Professor , University of Leeds
Professor Steve Furber , University of Manchester
Professor James H. Davenport, University of Bath
Julia Adamson, Director of Education, BCS
Professor Muffy Calder , University of Glasgow
Dr. Martin Sadler
Dr. , Imperial College London
Professor Katie Atkinson, University of Liverpool
See also
List of computer science awards
References
Awards established in 2004
2004 establishments in the United Kingdom
Computer science awards
British Computer Society |
12797090 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDS%20Sigma%20series | SDS Sigma series | The SDS Sigma series is a series of third generation computers that were introduced by Scientific Data Systems of the United States in 1966.
The first machines in the series are the 16-bit Sigma 2 and the 32-bit Sigma 7; the Sigma 7 was the first 32-bit computer released by SDS. At the time the only competition for the Sigma 7 was the IBM 360.
Memory size increments for all SDS/XDS/Xerox computers are stated in kWords, not kBytes. For example, the Sigma 5 base memory is 16K 32-Bit words (64K Bytes). Maximum memory is limited by the length of the instruction address field of 17 bits, or 128K Words (512K Bytes). Although this is a trivial amount of memory in today's technology, Sigma systems performed their tasks exceptionally well, and few were deployed with, or needed, the maximum 128K Word memory size.
The Xerox 500 series computers, introduced starting in 1973, are compatible upgrades to the Sigma systems using newer technology.
In 1975 Xerox sold its computer business to Honeywell, Inc. which continued support for the Sigma line for a time.
The Sigma 9 may hold the record for the longest lifetime of a machine selling near the original retail price. Sigmas 9s were still in service in 1993. In 2011 the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, Washington acquired a Sigma 9 from a service bureau (Applied Esoterics/George Plue Estate) and has made it operational. That Sigma 9 CPU was at the University of Southern Mississippi until Nov. 1985 when Andrews University purchased it and took it to Michigan. In Feb. 1990 Andrews University via Keith Calkins sold and delivered it to Applied Esoterics in Flagstaff, Arizona. Keith Calkins made the Sigma 9 functional for the museum in 2012/13 and brought up the CP-V operating system in Dec. 2014. The various other system components came from other user sites, such as Marquette, Samford and Xerox/Dallas.
Models
Source:
32-bit systems
16-bit systems
Instruction format
The format for memory-reference instructions for the 32-bit Sigma systems is as follows:
+-+--------------+--------+------+---------------------------+
|*| Op Code | R | X | Reference address |
+-+--------------+--------+------+---------------------------+
bit 0 1 7 8 1 1 1 1 3
1 2 4 5 1
Bit 0 indicates indirect address.
Bits 1-7 contain the operation code (opcode)
Bits 8-11 encode a register operand (0:15)
Bits 12-14 encode an index register (1:7). 0 indicates no indexing.
Bits 16-31 encode the address of a memory word.
For the Sigma 9, when real extended addressing is enabled, the reference address field is interpreted differently depending on whether the high-order bit is 0 or 1:
+-+--------------+--------+------+-+-------------------------+
| | | | |0| Address in 1st 64K words|
|*| Op Code | R | X +-+-------------------------+
| | | | |1| Low 16 bits of address |
+-+--------------+--------+------+-+-------------------------+
bit 0 1 7 8 1 1 1 1 1 3
1 2 4 5 6 1
If the high-order bit is 0, the lower 16 bits of the address refer to a location in the first 64K words of main memory; if the high-order bit is 1, the lower 16 bits of the address refer to a location in a 64K-word block of memory specified by the Extension Address in bits 42-47 of the Program Status Doubleword, with the Extension Address being concatenated with the lower 16 bits of the reference address to form the physical address.
Features
CPU
Sigma systems provided a range of performance, roughly doubling from Sigma 5, the slowest, to Sigma 9 Model 3, the fastest. For example, 32-bit fixed point multiply times ranged from 7.2 to 3.8 μs; 64-bit floating point divide ranged from 30.5 to 17.4 μs.
Most Sigma systems included two or more blocks of 16 general-purpose registers. Switching blocks is accomplished by a single instruction (LPSD), providing fast context switching, since registers do not have to be saved and restored.
Memory
Memory in the Sigma systems can be addressed as individual bytes, halfwords, words, or doublewords.
All 32-bit Sigma systems except the Sigma 5 and Sigma 8 used a memory map to implement virtual memory. The following description applies to the Sigma 9, other models have minor differences.
The effective virtual address of a word is 17 bits wide. Virtual addresses 0 thru 15 are reserved to reference the corresponding general purpose register, and are not mapped. Otherwise, in virtual memory mode the high-order eight bits of an address, called virtual page number, are used as an index to an array of 256 13-bit memory map registers. The thirteen bits from the map register plus the remaining nine bits of the virtual address form the address used to access real memory.
Access protection is implemented using a separate array of 256 two-bit access control codes, one per virtual page (512 words), indicating a combination of read/write/execute or no access to that page.
Independently, an array of 256 2-bit access control registers for the first 128k words of real memory function as a "lock-and-key" system in conjunction with two bits in the program status doubleword. The system allows pages to be marked "unlocked", or the key to be a "master key". Otherwise the key in the PSD had to match the lock in the access register in order to reference the memory page.
Peripherals
Input/output is accomplished using a control unit called an IOP (Input-output processor). An IOP provides an 8-bit data path to and from memory. Systems support up to 8 IOPs, each of which can attach up to 32 device controllers.
An IOP can be either a selector I/O processor (SIOP) or a multiplexer I/O processor (MIOP). The SIOP provides a data rate up to 1.5 megabytes per second (MBPS), but allows only one device to be active at a time. The MIOP, intended to support slow speed peripherals allows up to 32 devices to be active at any time, but provides only a .3 MBPS aggregate data rate.
Mass storage
The primary mass storage device, known as a RAD (random-access disk), contains 512 fixed heads and a large (approx 600 mm/24 in diameter) vertically mounted disk spinning at relatively low speeds. Because of the fixed head arrangement, access is quite fast. Capacities range from 1.6 to 6.0 megabytes and are used for temporary storage. Large-capacity multi-platter disks are employed for permanent storage.
Communications
The Sigma 7611 Character Oriented Communications subsystem (COC) supports one to seven Line Interface Units (LIUs). Each LIU can have one to eight line interfaces capable of operating in simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex mode. The COC was "intended for low to medium speed character oriented data transmissions."
System control unit
The System Control Unit (SCU) was a "microprogrammable data processor" which can interface to a Sigma CPU, and "to peripheral and analog devices, and to many kinds of line protocol." The SCU executes horizontal microinstructions with a 32-bit word length. A cross-assembler running on a Sigma system can be used to create microprograms for the SCU.
Carnegie Mellon Sigma 5
The Sigma 5 computer owned by Carnegie Mellon University was donated to the Computer History Museum in 2002. The system consists of five full-size cabinets with a monitor, control panel and a printer. It is possibly the last surviving Sigma 5 that is still operational.
The Sigma 5 sold for US$300,000 with 16 kilowords of random-access magnetic-core memory, with an optional memory upgrade to 32 kW for an additional $50,000. The hard disk drive had a capacity of 3 megabytes.
32-bit software
Operating systems
Sigma 5 and 8 systems lack the memory map feature,
The Sigma 5 is supported by the Basic Control Monitor (BCM) and the Batch Processing Monitor (BPM). The Sigma 8 can run the Real-time Batch Monitor (RBM) as well as BPM/BTM.
The remaining models initially ran the Batch Processing Monitor (BPM), later augmented with a timesharing option (BTM); the combined system was usually referred to as BPM/BTM. The Universal Time-Sharing System (UTS) became available in 1971, supporting much enhanced time-sharing facilities. A compatible upgrade (or renaming) of UTS, Control Program V (CP-V) became available starting in 1973 and added real-time, remote batch, and transaction processing. A dedicated real-time OS, Control Program for Real-Time (CP-R) was also available for Sigma 9 systems. The Xerox Operating System (XOS), intended as an IBM DOS/360 replacement (not to be confused with PC DOS of a latter era), also runs on Sigma 6/7/9 systems, but never gained real popularity.
Third party operating systems
Some third party operating systems were available for Sigma Machines. One was named GEM (for Generalized Environmental Monitor), and was said to be "rather UNIX-like". A second was named JANUS, from Michigan State University.
Applications software
The Xerox software, called processors, available for CP-V in 1978 included:
Terminal Executive Language (TEL) command language
Control Command Interpreter (CCL) batch counterpart of TEL
Various system management processors — backup/restore, accounting, etc.
EASY — TTY line editor
Extended FORTRAN IV
Meta-Symbol macro assembler
AP assembler
BASIC
FLAG —FORTRAN Load and Go
ANS COBOL
APL
RPG
Simulation Language (SL-l) †
LINK one-pass linking loader
LOAD two-pass overlay loader
LYNX loader
GENMD load module editor
DELTA machine language debugger
FORTRAN Debug Package (FDP)
COBOL On-line Debugger
EDIT — line editor
Peripheral Conversion Language (PCL) — pronounced "pickle" — data move/convert utility
Other service processors such as SYSGEN, ANLZ dump analyzer, library maintenance
Sort/Merge
EDMS database management †
GPDS General Purpose Discrete Simulator †
CIRC circuit analysis,†
MANAGE —generalized file management system †
†Program product, chargeable
16-bit software
Operating systems
The Basic Control Monitor (BCM) for the Sigma 2 and 3 provided "Full real-time capability with some provision for batch processing in the background." The Sigma 3 could also run RBM.
Clones
After Honeywell discontinued production of Sigma hardware — Xerox had sold most of the rights to Honeywell in July, 1975 — several companies produced or announced clone systems. The Telefile T-85, introduced in 1979, was an upward compatible drop-in replacement for 32-bit Sigmas. Ilene Industries Data Systems announced the MOD 9000, a Sigma 9 clone with an incompatible I/O architecture. Realtime Computer Equipment, Inc. designed the RCE-9, an upward compatible drop-in replacement that could also use IBM peripherals. The Modutest Mod 9 was redesigned and built by Gene Zeitler (President), Lothar Mueller (Senior VP) and Ed Drapell, is 100% hardware and software compatibility with the Sigma 9. It was manufactured and sold to Telefile, Utah Power and Light, Minnesota Power, Taiwan Power and Ohio College Library Center (OCLC).
See also
SDS 940
References
Further reading
External links
Request an account at Living Computers: Museum + Labs, a portal into the Paul Allen collection of timesharing and interactive computers, including a Xerox Sigma 9 running CP-V.
Products introduced in 1966
Mainframe computers
Scientific Data Systems computers
Time-sharing
SDS Sigma series
32-bit computers |
496957 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard%20link | Hard link | In computing, a hard link is a directory entry (in a directory-based file system) that associates a name with a file. Thus, each file must have at least one hard link. Creating additional hard links for a file makes the contents of that file accessible via additional paths (i.e., via different names or in different directories). This causes an alias effect: a process can open the file by any one of its paths and change its content. By contrast, a soft link or “shortcut” to a file is not a direct link to the data itself, but rather a reference to a hard link or another soft link.
Every directory is itself a special file, only it contains a list of file names. Hence, multiple hard links to directories are possible, which could create a circular directory structure, rather than a branching structure like a tree. For that reason, some file systems forbid the creation of hard links to directories.
POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Android, macOS, and the Windows NT family, support multiple hard links to the same file, depending on the file system. For instance, NTFS supports hard links, while FAT and ReFS do not.
Operation
Let two hard links, named "LINK A.TXT" and "LINK B.TXT", point to the same physical data. A text editor opens "LINK A.TXT", modifies it and save it. When the editor (or any other app) opens "LINK B.TXT", it can see that changes made to "LINK A.TXT", since both file names point to the same data.
Some editors however break the hard link concept, e.g. emacs. When opening a file for editing, e.g., "LINK B.TXT", emacs renames "LINK B.TXT" to "LINK B.TXT~", loads "LINK B.TXT~" into the editor, and saves the modified contents to a newly created "LINK B.TXT". Now, "LINK A.TXT" and "LINK B.TXT" no longer shares the same data. (This behavior can be changed using the emacs variable backup-by-copying.)
Any number of hard links to the physical data may be created. To access the data, a user only needs to specify the name of any existing link; the operating system will resolve the location of the actual data. Even if the user deletes one of the hard links, the data is still accessible through any other link that remains. Once the user deletes all of the links, if no process has the file open, the operating system frees the disk space that the file once occupied.
Reference counting
Most file systems that support hard links use reference counting. The system stores an integer value with each logical data section that represents the total number of hard links that have been created to point to the data. When a new link is created, this value is increased by one. When a link is removed, the value is decreased by one. When the counter becomes zero, the operating system frees the logical data section. (The OS may not to do so immediately, e.g., when there are outstanding file handles open, for performance reasons, or to enable the undelete command.
This is a simple method for the file system to track the use of a given area of storage, as zero values indicate free space and nonzero values indicate used space. The maintenance of this value guarantees that there will be no dangling hard links pointing nowhere. The data section and the associated inode are preserved as long as a single hard link (directory reference) points to it or any process keeps the associated file open.
On POSIX-compliant operating systems, the reference count for a file or directory is returned by the stat() or fstat() system calls in the st_nlink field of struct stat.
Limitations
To prevent loops in the filesystem, and to keep the interpretation of the "" file (parent directory) consistent, operating systems do not allow hard links to directories. UNIX System V allowed them, but only the superuser had permission to make such links. Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard) and newer use hard links on directories for the Time Machine backup mechanism only.
Hard links can be created to files only on the same volume, i.e., within the same file system. (Different volumes may have different file systems. There is no guarantee that the target volume's file system is compatible with hard linking.)
The maximum number of hard links to a single file is limited by the size of the reference counter. On Unix-like systems the counter is 4,294,967,295 (on 32-bit machines) or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (on 64-bit machines.) In some file systems, the number of hard links is limited more strictly by their on-disk format. For example, as of Linux 3.11, the ext4 file system limits the number of hard links on a file to 65,000. Windows limits enforces a limit of 1024 hard links to a file on NTFS volumes.
On Linux Weekly News, Neil Brown criticized hard links as high-maintenance, since they complicate the design of programs that handle directory trees, including archivers and disk usage tools. These apps must take care to de-duplicate files that are linked multiple times in a hierarchy. Brown notes that Plan 9 from Bell Labs, the intended successor to Unix, does not include the concept of a hard link.
Platform support
Windows NT 3.1 and later support hard links on the NTFS file system. Windows 2000 introduces a CreateHardLink() function to create hard links, but only for files, not directories. The DeleteFile() function can remove them.
To create a hard link on Windows, end-users can use:
The fsutil utility (introduced in Windows 2000)
The mklink internal command of Windows Command Prompt (introduced in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008)
The New-Item cmdlet of PowerShell
To interrogate a file for its hard links, end-users can use:
The fsutil utility
The Get-Item and Get-ChildItem cmdlets of PowerShell. These cmdlets represent each file with an object; PowerShell adds a read-only LinkType property to each of them. This property contains the string if the associated file has multiple hard links.
The Windows Component Store uses hard links to keep track of different versions of components stored on the hard disk drive.
On Unix-like systems, the system call can create additional hard links to existing files. To create hard links, end-users can use:
The ln utility
The link utility
The New-Item cmdlet of PowerShell
To interrogate a file for its hard links, end-users can use:
The stat command
The ls -l command
The Get-Item and Get-ChildItem cmdlets of PowerShell (see above)
Unix-like emulation or compatibility software running on Microsoft Windows, such as Cygwin and Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications, allow the use of POSIX interfaces.
OpenVMS supports hard links on the ODS-5 file system. Unlike Unix, VMS can create hard links to directories.
See also
Symbolic link: Points to a hard link, not the file data itself; hence, it works across volumes and file systems.
NTFS links: Details the four link types that the NTFS supports—hard links, symbolic links, junction points, and volume mount points
Shortcut: A small file that points to another in a local or remote location
Alias: macOS implementation of a shortcut
Shadow: OS/2 implementation of a shortcut
freedup – The freedup command frees-up disk space by replacing duplicate data stores with automatically generated hard links
References
Computer file systems |
41551815 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan%20J.%20Eggers | Susan J. Eggers | Susan J. Eggers is an American computer scientist noted for her research on computer architecture
and compilers.
"Eggers is best known for her foundational work in developing and helping to commercialize simultaneous multithreaded (SMT) processors, one of the most important advancements in computer architecture in the past 30 years. In the mid-1990s, Moore's Law was in full swing and, while computer engineers were finding ways to fit up to 1 billion transistors on a computer chip, the increase in logic and memory alone did not result in significant performance gains. Eggers was among those who argued that increasing parallelism, or a computer's ability to perform many calculations or processes concurrently, was the best way to realize performance gains."(IEEE Computer Society Eckert-Mauchly Award Announcement)
In 2006, Eggers was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the design and evaluation of advanced processor architectures.
Biography
Eggers received a B.A. from Connecticut College in 1965. She received a
Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.
She then joined the Department of Computer Science at University of Washington in 1989 and is now an Emeritus Professor there.
Awards
Eggers has several notable awards including:
Computer architecture community's most prestigious award, the Eckert-Mauchly Award in 2018 for outstanding contribution to simultaneous multi thread processor architectures and multiprocessor sharing and coherency. Eggers is the first woman to win this award.
ACM Fellow in 2002 "for contributions to the design and analysis of multithreaded and shared memory multiprocessors and compiler technology."
IEEE Fellow in 2003
ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award in 2009
AAAS Fellow in 2006
She was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2006
She won 2011 and 2010 ISCA Influential Paper Awards for her 1996 and 1995 co-authored papers presented at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture.
References
External links
University of Washington: Susan J. Eggers, Department of Computer Science
American women computer scientists
American computer scientists
University of Washington faculty
Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Fellow Members of the IEEE
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Connecticut College alumni
American women academics
21st-century American women |
1626330 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHDLoad | WHDLoad | WHDLoad is a software package for the Amiga platform to make installation of software to a hard disk easier, for such things as demos or games. Allowing for better compatibility for Amiga software, which can sometimes have hardware incompatibilities making them hard to use in emulated environments due to the widely varying hardware specifications of the Amiga product line across its history. WHDLoad basically circumvents the operating system in the Amiga for greater compatibility and preserves the original program environment.
WHDLoad makes it possible to autostart an installed floppy disk image by clicking an icon.
Two special parts are required, each one specially written for the client program: To install media, it must be read from the original disk and written to an image file on the hard drive by the "Imager". Then the installed program can be run from a virtual disk drive with the "Slave" interface.
Slave interface
The "Slave" interface allows interaction between the program and WHDLoad, and co-ordinates the reading and writing of files. This makes it possible to run or emulate programs that are traditionally incompatible with common emulators such as WinFellow, or WinUAE. WHDLoad can be easier to use than trying to figure out the exact configuration for the aforementioned emulators as well.
History
The primary reason for this loader is that a large number of computer games for the Amiga don't properly interact with the AmigaOS operating system, but instead run directly on the Amiga hardware, making assumptions about specific control registers, memory locations, etc. The hardware of newer Amiga models had been greatly revised, causing these assumptions to break when trying to run the same games on newer hardware, and vice versa with newer games on older hardware. WHDLoad provides a way to install such games on an AmigaOS-compatible hard drive and run on newer hardware. An added benefit is the avoidance of loading times and disk swaps, because everything the game needs is stored on the hard drive.
The first public release of WHDLoad was on September 5, 1996, and version 18.6 is the latest available in October 2020.
Features
WHDLoad takes over the entire operating system which may cause problems with some software (e.g. TCP/IP stack), but quitting the game or demo restores the system back into its normal working state.
WHDLoad games are stored on the AmigaOS file system as disk images, relying on driver files known as "WHDLoad slaves" to work. These slave files are freely available from the Internet (as Freeware), but the games themselves have to be acquired separately, to prevent software piracy. Additionally, many fans have made their own freeware games, which are also freely, and legally, available.
How WHDLoad works
The WHDLoad "Slave" interface is integrated into the OS in that you can double-click a program icon to run the program at any time. When the user executes the program, by clicking a stored image icon, the AmigaOS operating system loads the WHDLoad executable and starts it. Then the loader checks the software and hardware environment, loads and checks the Slave interface required for that chosen demo or game and allocates required memory for the installed program. If the Preload feature is enabled into the requester page of WHDLoad, then the program attempts to load disk images and files into RAM (insofar as free memory is available).
At this point WHDLoad performs its main task of switching off the AmigaOS operating system, disables multitasking and interrupts, and copies memory regions which are used by AmigaOS and required by the installed program to an unused place until the AmigaOS is needed again.
WHDLoad also degrades the graphics hardware to OCS on original Amiga machines (this function actually can work also on emulated Amigas, but only on newer versions of WinUAE which recognizes WHDLoad and preserves its interrupts), then WHDLoad initializes all hardware with defined values and jumps into the Slave interface required for the program in question.
The Slave interface loads the main executable of the installed program by calling a WHDLoad function (resload_DiskLoad or resload_LoadFile), then patches the main executable (so that the loaded program will be capable of loading its data stored into the hard disk via the Slave, in order to fix compatibility problems, and to enable an exit from the program) and calls the main executable.
At this point, the program that has been installed can perform the task for which it has been written, loading its data as it would from a real floppy disk.
Users can break the execution of the loaded program by way of a "Quit" key (usually F10). When this action is performed, then the Slave interface returns to WHDLoad by calling a resload_Abort internal function.
The OS will be restored with all hardware registers and original display. The memory and all allocated resources are left free for any further usage.
Requirements
A standard Amiga 1200 or Amiga 600 without any extra memory, will only work with a limited number of games. Which usually means games using OCS/ECS and one floppy disk. It is recommended to install either a or RAM Board in the trapdoor slot to ensure compatibility for 99% of the games.
A harddisk is required, the number of games that can be installed depend on the size of the harddisk.
References
External links
whdload.de: WHDLoad home page
jimneray.com: X-bEnCh - A GUI to launch WHDLoad installed and other games/demos
See also
Amiga emulation software
AmigaOS |
879900 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory%20access%20control | Mandatory access control | In computer security, mandatory access control (MAC) refers to a type of access control by which the operating system or database constrains the ability of a subject or initiator to access or generally perform some sort of operation on an object or target. In the case of operating systems, a subject is usually a process or thread; objects are constructs such as files, directories, TCP/UDP ports, shared memory segments, IO devices, etc. Subjects and objects each have a set of security attributes. Whenever a subject attempts to access an object, an authorization rule enforced by the operating system kernel examines these security attributes and decides whether the access can take place. Any operation by any subject on any object is tested against the set of authorization rules (aka policy) to determine if the operation is allowed. A database management system, in its access control mechanism, can also apply mandatory access control; in this case, the objects are tables, views, procedures, etc.
With mandatory access control, this security policy is centrally controlled by a security policy administrator; users do not have the ability to override the policy and, for example, grant access to files that would otherwise be restricted. By contrast, discretionary access control (DAC), which also governs the ability of subjects to access objects, allows users the ability to make policy decisions and/or assign security attributes. (The traditional Unix system of users, groups, and read-write-execute permissions is an example of DAC.) MAC-enabled systems allow policy administrators to implement organization-wide security policies. Under MAC (and unlike DAC), users cannot override or modify this policy, either accidentally or intentionally. This allows security administrators to define a central policy that is guaranteed (in principle) to be enforced for all users.
Historically and traditionally, MAC has been closely associated with multilevel security (MLS) and specialized military systems. In this context, MAC implies a high degree of rigor to satisfy the constraints of MLS systems. More recently, however, MAC has deviated out of the MLS niche and has started to become more mainstream. The more recent MAC implementations, such as SELinux and AppArmor for Linux and Mandatory Integrity Control for Windows, allow administrators to focus on issues such as network attacks and malware without the rigor or constraints of MLS.
Historical background and implications for multilevel security
Historically, MAC was strongly associated with multilevel security (MLS) as a means of protecting US classified information. The Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC), the seminal work on the subject, provided the original definition of MAC as "a means of restricting access to objects based on the sensitivity (as represented by a label) of the information contained in the objects and the formal authorization (i.e., clearance) of subjects to access information of such sensitivity". Early implementations of MAC such as Honeywell's SCOMP, USAF SACDIN, NSA Blacker, and Boeing's MLS LAN focused on MLS to protect military-oriented security classification levels with robust enforcement.
The term mandatory in MAC has acquired a special meaning derived from its use with military systems. In this context, MAC implies an extremely high degree of robustness that assures that the control mechanisms can resist any type of subversion, thereby enabling them to enforce access controls that are mandated by order of a government such as the Executive Order 12958 for US classified information. Enforcement is supposed to be more imperative than for commercial applications. This precludes enforcement by best-effort mechanisms; only mechanisms that can provide absolute or near-absolute enforcement of the mandate are acceptable for MAC. This is a tall order and sometimes assumed unrealistic by those unfamiliar with high assurance strategies, and very difficult for those who are.
Strength
Degrees
In some systems, users have the authority to decide whether to grant access to any other user. To allow that, all users have clearances for all data. This is not necessarily true of an MLS system. If individuals or processes exist that may be denied access to any of the data in the system environment, then the system must be trusted to enforce MAC. Since there can be various levels of data classification and user clearances, this implies a quantified scale for robustness. For example, more robustness is indicated for system environments containing classified Top Secret information and uncleared users than for one with Secret information and users cleared to at least Confidential. To promote consistency and eliminate subjectivity in degrees of robustness, an extensive scientific analysis and risk assessment of the topic produced a landmark benchmark standardization quantifying security robustness capabilities of systems and mapping them to the degrees of trust warranted for various security environments. The result was documented in CSC-STD-004-85. Two relatively independent components of robustness were defined: Assurance Level and Functionality. Both were specified with a degree of precision that warranted significant confidence in certifications based on these criteria.
Evaluation
The Common Criteria is based on this science and it intended to preserve the Assurance Level as EAL levels and the functionality specifications as Protection Profiles. Of these two essential components of objective robustness benchmarks, only EAL levels were faithfully preserved. In one case, TCSEC level C2 (not a MAC capable category) was fairly faithfully preserved in the Common Criteria, as the Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP). Multilevel security (MLS) Protection Profiles (such as MLSOSPP similar to B2) is more general than B2. They are pursuant to MLS, but lack the detailed implementation requirements of their Orange Book predecessors, focusing more on objectives. This gives certifiers more subjective flexibility in deciding whether the evaluated product’s technical features adequately achieve the objective, potentially eroding consistency of evaluated products and making it easier to attain certification for less trustworthy products. For these reasons, the importance of the technical details of the Protection Profile is critical to determining the suitability of a product.
Such an architecture prevents an authenticated user or process at a specific classification or trust-level from accessing information, processes, or devices in a different level. This provides a containment mechanism of users and processes, both known and unknown (an unknown program (for example) might comprise an untrusted application where the system should monitor and/or control accesses to devices and files).
Implementations
A few MAC implementations, such as Unisys' Blacker project, were certified robust enough to separate Top Secret from Unclassified late in the last millennium. Their underlying technology became obsolete and they were not refreshed. Today there are no current implementations certified by TCSEC to that level of robust implementation. However, some less robust products exist.
Amon Ott's RSBAC (Rule Set Based Access Control) provides a framework for Linux kernels that allows several different security policy / decision modules. One of the models implemented is Mandatory Access Control model. A general goal of RSBAC design was to try to reach (obsolete) Orange Book (TCSEC) B1 level. The model of mandatory access control used in RSBAC is mostly the same as in Unix System V/MLS, Version 1.2.1 (developed in 1989 by the National Computer Security Center of the USA with classification B1/TCSEC). RSBAC requires a set of patches to the stock kernel, which are maintained quite well by the project owner.
An NSA research project called SELinux added a Mandatory Access Control architecture to the Linux Kernel, which was merged into the mainline version of Linux in August 2003. It utilizes a Linux 2.6 kernel feature called LSM (Linux Security Modules interface). Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 4 (and later versions) come with an SELinux-enabled kernel. Although SELinux is capable of restricting all processes in the system, the default targeted policy in RHEL confines the most vulnerable programs from the unconfined domain in which all other programs run. RHEL 5 ships 2 other binary policy types: strict, which attempts to implement least privilege, and MLS, which is based on strict and adds MLS labels. RHEL 5 contains additional MLS enhancements and received 2 LSPP/RBACPP/CAPP/EAL4+ certifications in June 2007.
TOMOYO Linux is a lightweight MAC implementation for Linux and Embedded Linux, developed by NTT Data Corporation. It has been merged in Linux Kernel mainline version 2.6.30 in June 2009. Differently from the label-based approach used by SELinux, TOMOYO Linux performs a pathname-based Mandatory Access Control, separating security domains according to process invocation history, which describes the system behavior. Policy are described in terms of pathnames. A security domain is simply defined by a process call chain, and represented by a string. There are 4 modes: disabled, learning, permissive, enforcing. Administrators can assign different modes for different domains. TOMOYO Linux introduced the "learning" mode, in which the accesses occurred in the kernel are automatically analyzed and stored to generate MAC policy: this mode could then be the first step of policy writing, making it easy to customize later.
SUSE Linux and Ubuntu 7.10 have added a MAC implementation called AppArmor. AppArmor utilizes a Linux 2.6 kernel feature called LSM (Linux Security Modules interface). LSM provides a kernel API that allows modules of kernel code to govern ACL (DAC ACL, access-control lists). AppArmor is not capable of restricting all programs and is optionally in the Linux kernel as of version 2.6.36.
Linux and many other Unix distributions have MAC for CPU (multi-ring), disk, and memory; while OS software may not manage privileges well, Linux became famous during the 1990s as being more secure and far more stable than non-Unix alternatives. Linux distributors disable MAC to being at best DAC for some devices – although this is true for any consumer electronics available today.
grsecurity is a patch for the Linux kernel providing a MAC implementation (precisely, it is an RBAC implementation). grsecurity is not implemented via the LSM API.
Microsoft Starting with Windows Vista and Server 2008 Windows incorporates Mandatory Integrity Control, which adds Integrity Levels (IL) to processes running in a login session. MIC restricts the access permissions of applications that are running under the same user account and which may be less trustworthy. Five integrity levels are defined: Low, Medium, High, System, and Trusted Installer. Processes started by a regular user gain a Medium IL; elevated processes have High IL. While processes inherit the integrity level of the process that spawned it, the integrity level can be customized on a per-process basis: e.g. IE7 and downloaded executables run with Low IL. Windows controls access to objects based on ILs, as well as for defining the boundary for window messages via User Interface Privilege Isolation. Named objects, including files, registry keys or other processes and threads, have an entry in the ACL governing access to them that defines the minimum IL of the process that can use the object. MIC enforces that a process can write to or delete an object only when its IL is equal to or higher than the object’s IL. Furthermore, to prevent access to sensitive data in memory, processes can’t open processes with a higher IL for read access.
FreeBSD supports Mandatory Access Control, implemented as part of the TrustedBSD project. It was introduced in FreeBSD 5.0. Since FreeBSD 7.2, MAC support is enabled by default. The framework is extensible; various MAC modules implement policies such as Biba and multilevel security.
Sun's Trusted Solaris uses a mandatory and system-enforced access control mechanism (MAC), where clearances and labels are used to enforce a security policy. However note that the capability to manage labels does not imply the kernel strength to operate in multilevel security mode. Access to the labels and control mechanisms are not robustly protected from corruption in protected domain maintained by a kernel. The applications a user runs are combined with the security label at which the user works in the session. Access to information, programs and devices are only weakly controlled.
Apple's Mac OS X MAC framework is an implementation of the TrustedBSD MAC framework. A limited high-level sandboxing interface is provided by the command-line function sandbox_init. See the sandbox_init manual page for documentation.
Oracle Label Security is an implementation of mandatory access control in the Oracle DBMS.
SE-PostgreSQL is a work in progress as of 2008-01-27, providing integration into SE-Linux. It aims for integration into version 8.4, together with row-level restrictions.
Trusted RUBIX is a mandatory access control enforcing DBMS that fully integrates with SE-Linux to restrict access to all database objects.
Astra Linux OS developed for Russian Army has its own mandatory access control.
Smack (Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel) is a Linux kernel security module that protects data and process interaction from malicious manipulation using a set of custom mandatory access control rules, with simplicity as its main design goal. It has been officially merged since the Linux 2.6.25 release.
ZeroMAC written by Peter Gabor Gyulay is a Linux LSM kernel patch.
See also
Bell–LaPadula model
Access-control list
Attribute-based access control (ABAC)
Context-based access control (CBAC)
Discretionary access control (DAC)
Lattice-based access control (LBAC)
Organisation-based access control (OrBAC)
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Rule-set-based access control (RSBAC)
Capability-based security
Location-based authentication
Risk-based authentication
Clark–Wilson model
Classified information
Graham–Denning model
Mandatory Integrity Control
Multiple single-level
Security modes
Smack (software)
Systrace
Take-grant protection model
Type enforcement
Footnotes
References
P. A. Loscocco, S. D. Smalley, P. A. Muckelbauer, R. C. Taylor, S. J. Turner, and J. F. Farrell. The Inevitability of Failure: The Flawed Assumption of Security in Modern Computing Environments. In Proceedings of the 21st National Information Systems Security Conference, pages 303–314, Oct. 1998.
P. A. Loscocco, S. D. Smalley, Meeting Critical Security Objectives with Security-Enhanced Linux Proceedings of the 2001 Ottawa Linux Symposium.
ISO/IEC DIS 10181-3, Information Technology, OSI Security Model, Security FrameWorks, Part 3: Access Control, 1993
Robert N. M. Watson. "A decade of OS access-control extensibility". Commun. ACM 56, 2 (February 2013), 52–63.
External links
Weblog post on the how virtualization can be used to implement Mandatory Access Control.
Weblog post from a Microsoft employee detailing Mandatory Integrity Control and how it differs from MAC implementations.
GWV Formal Security Policy Model A Separation Kernel Formal Security Policy, David Greve, Matthew Wilding, and W. Mark Vanfleet.
Computer security models
Computer access control
Operating system security
Access control |
5211089 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenVZ | OpenVZ | OpenVZ (Open Virtuozzo) is an operating-system-level virtualization technology for Linux. It allows a physical server to run multiple isolated operating system instances, called containers, virtual private servers (VPSs), or virtual environments (VEs). OpenVZ is similar to Solaris Containers and LXC.
OpenVZ compared to other virtualization technologies
While virtualization technologies such as VMware, Xen and KVM provide full virtualization and can run multiple operating systems and different kernel versions, OpenVZ uses a single Linux kernel and therefore can run only Linux. All OpenVZ containers share the same architecture and kernel version. This can be a disadvantage in situations where guests require different kernel versions than that of the host. However, as it does not have the overhead of a true hypervisor, it is very fast and efficient.
Memory allocation with OpenVZ is soft in that memory not used in one virtual environment can be used by others or for disk caching. While old versions of OpenVZ used a common file system (where each virtual environment is just a directory of files that is isolated using chroot), current versions of OpenVZ allow each container to have its own file system.
Kernel
The OpenVZ kernel is a Linux kernel, modified to add support for OpenVZ containers. The modified kernel provides virtualization, isolation, resource management, and checkpointing. As of vzctl 4.0, OpenVZ can work with unpatched Linux 3.x kernels, with a reduced feature set.
Virtualization and isolation
Each container is a separate entity, and behaves largely as a physical server would. Each has its own:
Files System libraries, applications, virtualized /proc and /sys, virtualized locks, etc.
Users and groups Each container has its own root user, as well as other users and groups.
Process tree A container only sees its own processes (starting from init). PIDs are virtualized, so that the init PID is 1 as it should be.
Network Virtual network device, which allows a container to have its own IP addresses, as well as a set of netfilter (iptables), and routing rules.
Devices If needed, any container can be granted access to real devices like network interfaces, serial ports, disk partitions, etc.
IPC objects Shared memory, semaphores, messages.
Resource management
OpenVZ resource management consists of four components: two-level disk quota, fair CPU scheduler, disk I/O scheduler, and user bean counters (see below). These resources can be changed during container run time, eliminating the need to reboot.
Two-level disk quota
Each container can have its own disk quotas, measured in terms of disk blocks and inodes (roughly number of files). Within the container, it is possible to use standard tools to set UNIX per-user and per-group disk quotas.
CPU scheduler
The CPU scheduler in OpenVZ is a two-level implementation of fair-share scheduling strategy.
On the first level, the scheduler decides which container it is to give the CPU time slice to, based on per-container cpuunits values. On the second level the standard Linux scheduler decides which process to run in that container, using standard Linux process priorities.
It is possible to set different values for the CPUs in each container. Real CPU time will be distributed proportionally to these values.
In addition to the above, OpenVZ provides ways to:
set strict CPU limits, such as 10% of a total CPU time (--cpulimit);
limit number of CPU cores available to container (--cpus);
bind a container to a specific set of CPUs (--cpumask).
I/O scheduler
Similar to the CPU scheduler described above, I/O scheduler in OpenVZ is also two-level, utilizing Jens Axboe's CFQ I/O scheduler on its second level.
Each container is assigned an I/O priority, and the scheduler distributes the available I/O bandwidth according to the priorities assigned. Thus no single container can saturate an I/O channel.
User Beancounters
User Beancounters is a set of per-container counters, limits, and guarantees, meant to prevent a single container from monopolizing system resources. In current OpenVZ kernels (RHEL6-based 042stab*) there are two primary parameters (ram and swap, a.k.a. physpages and swappages), and others are optional.
Other resources are mostly memory and various in-kernel objects such as Inter-process communication shared memory segments and network buffers. Each resource can be seen from /proc/user_beancounters and has five values associated with it: current usage, maximum usage (for the lifetime of a container), barrier, limit, and fail counter. The meaning of barrier and limit is parameter-dependent; in short, those can be thought of as a soft limit and a hard limit. If any resource hits the limit, the fail counter for it is increased. This allows the owner to detect problems by monitoring /proc/user_beancounters in the container.
Checkpointing and live migration
A live migration and checkpointing feature was released for OpenVZ in the middle of April 2006. This makes it possible to move a container from one physical server to another without shutting down the container. The process is known as checkpointing: a container is frozen and its whole state is saved to a file on disk. This file can then be transferred to another machine and a container can be unfrozen (restored) there; the delay is roughly a few seconds. Because state is usually preserved completely, this pause may appear to be an ordinary computational delay.
Limitations
By default, OpenVZ restricts container access to real physical devices (thus making a container hardware-independent). An OpenVZ administrator can enable container access to various real devices, such as disk drives, USB ports, PCI devices or physical network cards.
/dev/loopN is often restricted in deployments (as loop devices use kernel threads which might be a security issue), which restricts the ability to mount disk images. A work-around is to use FUSE.
OpenVZ is limited to providing only some VPN technologies based on PPP (such as PPTP/L2TP) and TUN/TAP. IPsec is supported inside containers since kernel 2.6.32.
A graphical user interface called EasyVZ was attempted in 2007, but it did not progress beyond version 0.1. Up to version 3.4, Proxmox VE could be used as an OpenVZ-based server virtualization environment with a GUI, although later versions switched to LXC.
See also
Comparison of platform virtualization software
Operating-system-level virtualization
Proxmox Virtual Environment
References
External links
Free virtualization software
Free software programmed in C
Operating system security
Virtualization-related software for Linux |
26078930 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata%20Research%20Development%20and%20Design%20Centre | Tata Research Development and Design Centre | Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC) is a software research centre in Pune, India established by Tata Group's TCS in 1981. TRDDC undertakes research in Machine Learning, Software Engineering, Process Engineering and Systems Research.
TRDDC Researchers developed TCS Code Generator Framework (formerly called MasterCraft), an artificial intelligence software that can automatically create code from a simple computer language, and rewrite the code based on the user's needs.
Research at TRDDC has also resulted in the development of Swach (formerly known as Sujal), a low-cost water purifier that can be manufactured using locally available resources. TCS deployed thousands of these filters in the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of 2004 as part of its relief activities.
Innovation
In 2007, TCS launched its Co-Innovation Network, a network of TCS Innovation Labs, startup alliances, University Research Departments, and venture capitalists.
In addition to TRDDC, TCS has 19 Innovation Labs based in three countries.
TCS Innovation Lab, Convergence: Content management and delivery, convergence engines, networks such as 3G, WiMax, WiMesh, IP Testing for Quality of Service, IMS, OSS/BSS systems, and others.
TCS Innovation Lab, Delhi: Software Architectures, Software as a Service, natural language processing, text, data and process analytics, multimedia applications and graphics.
TCS Innovation Lab, Embedded Systems and Robotics, Kolkata and Bengaluru: Medical electronics, Machine Vision, Robotics, WiMAX, and WLAN technologies.
TCS Innovation Lab, Hyderabad: Computational methods in life sciences, meta-genomics, systems biology, e-security, smart card-based applications, digital media protection, nano-biotechnology, quantitative finance.
TCS Innovation Lab, Mumbai: Speech and natural language processing, wireless systems and wireless applications.
TCS Innovation Lab, Insurance - Chennai: IT Optimisation, Business Process Optimisation, Customer Centricity Enablers, Enterprise Mobility, Telematics, Innovation in Product Development and Management (Product lifecycle management) in Insurance.
TCS Innovation Lab, Chennai: Infrastructure innovation, green computing, Web 2.0 and next-generation user interfaces.
TCS Innovation Lab, Peterborough, England: New-wave communications for the enterprises, utility computing and RFID (chips, tags, labels, readers and middleware).
TCS Innovation Lab: Performance Engineering, Mumbai: Performance management, high performance technology components, and others.
TCS Innovation Lab, Cincinnati, United States: Engineering and Manufacturing IT solutions.
Some of the assets created by TCS Innovation Labs are DBProdem, Jensor Jensor released as Open Source, Wanem Wanem released as Open Source, Scrutinet.
In 2008, the TCS Innovation Lab-developed product, mKrishi, won the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in the Wireless category. mKrishi is a service that would enable India's farmers to receive useful data on an inexpensive mobile device.
TCS' Co-Innovation Network partners include Collabnet, Cassatt, foreign academic institutions such as Stanford University, MIT, various IITs, and venture capitalists like Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins.
§
References
Software companies of India
Tata Consultancy Services
Tata institutions
Research institutes in Pune
Research institutes established in 1981
1981 establishments in Maharashtra
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange |
11341730 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldenSource | GoldenSource | GoldenSource Corporation, formerly known as "Financial Technologies International," is a global software company in the enterprise data management industry, founded in 1984 and headquartered in New York City, United States, with offices in London, Mumbai, Milan, Melbourne, and Hong Kong.
Most employees the company hires are from New York University; 10.7% of its employees attended NYU.
Products and services
GoldenSource provides enterprise data management solutions to domestic and international asset managers, banks, investment banks, broker-dealers, mutual fund companies, insurance companies, and global custodians, exchanges and depositories. The capabilities of GoldenSource cover the mastering of all types of capital markets data, including: Securities, entities, customers, products, positions and transactions, corporate actions, pricing and market and risk data.
Typical uses of the software include: Product control, P&L attribution, IPV, client onboarding, solvency II, MiFID II, FRTB, BCBS 239 and other regulations. Financial institutions use GoldenSource software to achieve a central reliable source of data for use across trading, risk and finance.
Clients and partners
Many of GoldenSource's clients include large and mid-sized financial services companies on both the buy side and sell side. They partner with a number of technology and services providers.
EDM Council
GoldenSource is one of the founding members and sponsors of the EDM Council.
References
Computer companies of the United States
Companies based in New York City
American companies established in 1984
Financial services companies established in 1984
Financial services companies of the United States
Software companies based in New York (state)
Business software companies
Software companies of the United States
1984 establishments in New York City
1984 establishments in the United States
Companies established in 1984 |
205599 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen%20R.%20Bourne | Stephen R. Bourne | Stephen Richard "Steve" Bourne (born 7 January 1944) is an English computer scientist based in the United States for most of his career. He is well known as the author of the Bourne shell (sh), which is the foundation for the standard command-line interfaces to Unix.
Biography
Bourne has a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in mathematics from King's College London, England. He has a Diploma in Computer Science and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge. Subsequently, he worked on an ALGOL 68 compiler at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory (see ALGOL 68C). He also worked on CAMAL, a system for algebraic manipulation used for lunar theory calculations.
After the University of Cambridge, Bourne spent nine years at Bell Labs with the Seventh Edition Unix team. Besides the Bourne shell, he wrote the adb debugger and The Unix System, the second book on the topic, intended for general readers.
After Bell Labs, Bourne worked in senior engineering management positions at Silicon Graphics, Digital Equipment Corporation, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems.
He was involved with developing international standards in programming and informatics, as a member of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which specified, maintains, and supports the programming languages ALGOL 60 and ALGOL 68.
From 2000 to 2002 he was president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). For his work on computing, Bourne was awarded the ACM's Presidential Award in 2008 and was made a Fellow of the organization in 2005. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Bourne was chief technology officer at Icon Venture Partners, a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California through 2014. He is also chairperson of the editorial advisory board for ACM Queue, a magazine he helped found when he was president of the ACM.
References
External links
Living people
British computer scientists
American computer scientists
Unix people
Alumni of King's College London
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Members of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Presidents of the Association for Computing Machinery
British expatriates in the United States
Silicon Graphics people
Digital Equipment Corporation people
Sun Microsystems people
Programming language designers
Computer science writers
Cellular automatists
1944 births
Chief technology officers |
33424835 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline%20of%20the%202011%20Libyan%20Civil%20War%20and%20military%20intervention%20%28June%20%E2%80%93%2015%20August%29 | Timeline of the 2011 Libyan Civil War and military intervention (June – 15 August) | The events regarding the military intervention on 19 March can be tracked in the related articles:
Timeline of the 2011 Libyan Civil War before military intervention
Timeline of the 2011 Libyan Civil War and military intervention (19 March–May)
Timeline of the 2011 Libyan Civil War and military intervention (16 August – 23 October)
The Libyan Civil War began on 17 February 2011 as a civil protest and later evolved into a widespread uprising. After a military intervention led by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States (and later NATO) on 19 March turned the tide of the conflict at the Second Battle of Benghazi, anti-Gaddafi forces regrouped and established control over Misrata and most of the Nafusa Mountains in Tripolitania and much of the eastern region of Cyrenaica. In mid-May, they finally broke an extended siege of Misrata.
This phase of the war saw an extended stalemate on the eastern front, with little movement between Ajdabiya and Brega. However, in the west, anti-Gaddafi fighters advanced from Misrata to seize control of surrounding areas, sacking the rival town of Tawergha as retribution for its support to the Libyan Army and allied mercenary fighters that had committed atrocities against their port city. Fighters in the Nafusa Mountains also became better organized, with Qatari military advisers and increased involvement by the National Transitional Council based in Benghazi helping to train disparate militiamen from Arab and Amazigh villages into something resembling a cohesive fighting force.
The NTC gained critical international recognition from the United States and other states during this period and began to open embassies and diplomatic offices in foreign capitals. But the opposition council was dealt a jarring setback by the murder of top military commander General Abdul Fatah Younis under mysterious circumstances in late July. Despite the muddled situation in the east, by mid-August, anti-Gaddafi units based in the Nafusa Mountains were mounting a bold offensive north toward the Mediterranean Basin.
Stalemate (1–14 June)
1 June
NATO extended its mission to enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 for an additional ninety days. The UN Human Rights Council declared that its fact-finding mission found Gaddafi guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ghanem defected from the Gaddafi administration due to "unbearable violence". Despite uncertainty at first over joining the opposition, he later declared his support to the NTC in a Roman news conference.
Rebel forces reported that Shakshuk, near the city of Jadu and well within Gaddafi territory, was captured.
Four car explosions triggered by a hand grenade damaged the Tibesti Hotel in Benghazi, a hotel used by the NTC and residence of many foreign journalists. Despite damage to the hotel, there were no injuries or casualties.
2 June
Cooling international concern, the Libyan opposition has downplayed concerns of oil contract re-negotiation as they meet with the leaders in Libya's oil industry.
NATO air attacks destroyed ammunition and vehicles depots, a SAM launcher, and a radar installation in the capital.
3 June
Two RAF Apache helicopters attacked a radar site and an armed checkpoint near Brega, the next logical waypoint in the opposition's campaign westward. French Gazelles were reported to have simultaneously been out on mission, marking the first time the helicopters were used by NATO.
Opposition fighters reportedly liberated the western towns, Qasr el-Haj, Shakshuk, and Bir Ayyad of loyalist forces.
4–5 June
Army Air Corps Apache gunships, launched from , destroyed several targets near the Brega-Ajdabiya front line including ammunition bunkers and radar installations while the French Gazelles also hit numerous targets around Brega in preparation for the perceived upcoming rebel offensive on the ground.
Libyan state media was under attack today because they told foreign reporters that a child who was injured in a NATO airstrike sustained her injuries in an unrelated car crash. This information was apparently passed to the foreign reporters in a note, at the hospital where she was situated.
The Netherlands and Denmark denied recognition of the NTC as the authority of Libya after rebels claimed such.
6 June
The mountain town of Yafran, roughly southwest of Tripoli, was reported to be under opposition control. Nalut and Zintan were reported to be "relatively quiet" by the opposition, though independent verification of this had not yet been made possible.
Additionally, NATO airstrikes leveled the offices of Libyan State TV and Gaddafi's military intelligence in Tripoli, though Libyan state authorities claimed only the latter was destroyed. Areas under opposition control reported disruption of state TV broadcasts.
In order to be knowledgeable of the terrain ahead, opposition forces in Misrata have been training men smuggled out of Zliten while coordinating their efforts with the city's tribal chiefs prior to launching any offensive westward.
7 June
Gaddafi appeared live and vowed to stay in Libya "dead or alive" as NATO launched some of its most destructive airstrikes yet, targeting key loyalist military installations of the Libyan secret police, Revolutionary Guard and Popular Guard.
Libyan Labour Minister, Al-Amin Manfur, defected and joined the opposition at a meeting of the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
There are some reports that one of Gaddafi's sons, Mutassim Gaddafi, was killed in an airstrike that was conducted by NATO.
It was reported on 7 June that Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr was executed by Gaddafi for refusing to carry out orders to kill protesters. It might be true since Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr had not appeared on national Libyan television, and there had been no outside communication with him.
8 June
Loyalist forces took advantage of a break in heavy airstrikes to launch a large attack on Misrata as well as Zintan, but did not make any gains.
Spain announced its designation of the NTC as the sole legitimate government of Libya.
As International Criminal Court judges debated issuing arrest warrants for Gaddafi and his confederates, the organization's chief prosecutor announced that it had received reliable reports that the Gaddafi administration was buying large quantities of "Viagra-type drugs" in order to encourage soldiers to rape supporters of the opposition.
9 June
Nations supporting the opposition agreed to finance the NTC with over US$1.1 billion as the rebel finance minister announced plans to gradually restore oil exports in the west.
The US and Australia recognized the NTC as the legitimate interlocutor of Libya, one step below formal diplomatic recognition.
Opposition forces claimed that over a dozen of Gaddafi's high-ranking military officials defected while rebels in the key mountain city of Zintan attempted to establish control.
10 June
The African Union chairperson participated as Invitee in the third meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya.
The African Union called for Gaddafi to step down as Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the leader of the AU Libya mediation team announced that Gaddafi "can no longer lead Libya."
Misrata continued to be bombarded by loyalist forces while clashes between Gaddafi's forces and rebel fighters erupted in the neighboring Zliten. Ghadames, an oasis town bordering Tunisia, was shelled by loyalist forces for the first time.
The leader of a UN inquiry into human rights violations in Libya expressed his skepticism over any official rape policy by the Gaddafi administration. He cited that alleged statistical evidence was never received by officials and that the allegations were a result of "mass hysteria". The allegations were based on surveys supposedly delivered through the postal system, but it was inoperable during the period it was claimed to have been used. Both loyalist and opposition parties accuse one another of committing war crimes according to the investigation. However, a senior U.N. official defended the validity of the claim, citing "consistent reports from people, from organisations, from UN entities and others on the ground."
11 June
Rebels in Zawiya, a city just from Tripoli, won control of some sections, marking the first significant clashes between loyalist and opposition forces since it was recaptured by Gaddafi's troops in March. Due to the ongoing fighting, loyalist forces closed down a highway that crosses the town, a key expressway for Gaddafi's war effort. A spokesman for the NTC explained that many of the rebels that fled Zawiya during its fall to Gaddafi in March had been training in the mountains in preparation.
Rebels reported that two of Gaddafi's sons were in command of the loyalist offensive at Zliten–Misrata front. One of these is Khamis Gaddafi, commander of the Khamis Brigade, a special forces brigade loyal exclusively to Gaddafi and reportedly one of the few loyalist brigades still intact. A day earlier he had been quoted telling his troops, "Take Misurata or I will kill you myself. If you don't take Misrata, we are finished."
12 June
A government spokesman alleged that the rebels were defeated in Zawiya after hours of fighting. A group of foreign reporters were taken from Tripoli to Zawiya for confirmation of the loyalist victory. The reporters confirmed that fighting had ceased throughout the areas they toured though they did not enter the western portion. Only hours earlier, rebels claimed to have surrounded loyalists in the west at three sides. The government further alleged that opposition forces had been pushed out of the city and surrounded on the edge of Zawiya. Reporters were unable to independently verify this, however. This was potentially confirmed when a reporter heard several gunshots west of the city center and a rebel fighter in the town stating that fighting was still taking place.
A force of 130 rebels attempted to advance on Brega but were repelled and pulled back to Ajdabiya. At least 25 of the opposition fighters were killed and 65 wounded during the offensive, with a rebel commander later claiming many casualties were suffered when loyalist troops feigned a surrender under a white flag, then fired on rebel soldiers as they approached.
Loyalist forces shelled Zintan from a distance as it remained under rebel control.
The United Arab Emirates announced its full diplomatic recognition of the NTC as the legitimate government of Libya.
13 June
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced that the NTC was "the legitimate representative of the Libyan people," but it was not a full diplomatic recognition.
Contact with the rebel spokesman in Zawiya, who was updating journalists on the fighting there, had ceased and the highway running through Zawiya toward the Tunisian border was re-opened, indicating that the fighting had stopped and the earlier reports of a rebel defeat were true. Foreign journalists were taken on a tour along the highway, confirming that traffic wasn't being re-routed anymore around Zawiya, as was done at the beginning of the battle.
Libyan rebel forces advanced from Misrata to within ten kilometers of the neighboring city of Zliten, east of Tripoli.
Loyalist troops launched six missile attacks on an oil refinery in Misrata, though the oil storing facilities were reported to not have been damaged.
Rebel push towards Tripoli (14 June – 15 August)
14 June
Loyalist forces fired several Grad rockets which landed within the Tunisian border. No injuries or damage were reported, and it was not immediately clear why this occurred.
Rebel fighters expelled Gaddafi troops from the town of Kikla, southwest of Tripoli, and immediately began fortifying their positions. Later reports announced that the opposition had seized the town of Ryayna, of Zintan. Rebels based in Misrata managed to move the front lines several kilometers west, closer to Zliten, after fierce fighting. Despite a renewed rebel offensive towards Brega, negligible progress was made on the eastern front.
Canada recognized the NTC as Libya's sole legitimate government while Liberia announced it was cutting formal diplomatic relations with the Gaddafi administration.
The US House of Representatives approved an amendment blocking additional funding for its military operations in Libya, effectively limiting the length of time US forces can continue their operation to two more months, without US Congressional approval of war.
15 June
NATO jets resumed airstrikes on the capital overnight, bombarding it primarily in the east. Additionally, a NATO commander confirmed that warplanes bombed an ammunition store at Waddan in the center of the country.
Tunisia announced it was ready to recognize the rebels as Libya's sole legitimate government. It gave three reasons for this action: that the shelling of its own people rendered Gaddafi's government illegitimate, that it still resented Gaddafi's support to Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the ongoing Tunisian revolution which started in December 2010, and that Gaddafi's shelling of its territory had rendered its previous strategy of neutrality ineffective.
The UN Security Council had its 6,555th meeting and the situation in Libya was discussed. The meeting did not result in any decisions, since the council heard the statement made by the African Union Ad Hoc High-Level Committee on Libya.
17 June
Rebels rejected Gaddafi's proposal to hold elections in three months.
The Swedish Parliament withdrew three fighter jets and sent marines to Libya. Sweden extended participation in the NATO Libya mission.
Italy signed an accord with the head of Libya's interim rebel government on Friday to jointly tackle a migration crisis triggered by the violence.
18 June
NATO said Libya was using mosques as shields.
19 June
At least five people died in a NATO air strike that hit a house in Tripoli, Libyan government officials said.
NATO admitted that it accidentally hit a civilian neighborhood in an airstrike.
Citing multiple sources, CNN reported that several anti-Gaddafi protests took place in Tripoli on 17 June, with protesters numbering in the hundreds. Pro-Gaddafi forces opened fire on the protesters with live ammunition, resulting in three deaths.
20 June
Rebels claimed to have cut off the supply of crude oil to Zawiya from the Awbari oil field at Rayayna.
The European Union toughened its sanctions on Gaddafi's government by adding six port authorities controlled by Gaddafi's forces to its asset-freeze list, stating that Gaddafi "had lost all legitimacy to remain in power".
Gaddafi government officials claimed that NATO killed 19 civilians in the town of Sorman, west of Tripoli. This came only a day after NATO admitted to accidentally killing civilians in a separate airstrike in Tripoli. NATO stated that the target in Surman was a military command and control node.
21 June
An unmanned NATO MQ-8 helicopter drone crashed due to enemy fire near Zliten while conducting reconnaissance.
23 June
Advancing rebels in the Nafusa Mountains discovered supplies left behind by the fleeing Gaddafi troops, which included Turkish humanitarian food rations which were discovered to have been manufactured in a factory in Turkey after the UN sanctions were in place, casting doubt on Turkey's commitment to the mission. The rations were first found in Shakshuk and then at three other former Gaddafi strongholds.
Brazilian External Relations Minister Antonio Patriota condemned the ostensible usage of antipersonnel mines by government forces in civilian areas. This was related to the discovery and deadly effect of Brazilian-made land mines upon rebel troops and civilians, even though Brazil, a party to the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, had not legally manufactured or exported antipersonnel land mines since 1989.
24 June
More Libyan soldiers and police officers fled to Tunis by using boats.
Turkey denied the allegations that it had sent rations to Gaddafi, as did the company whose label was found on the ration packages. The latter suggested that the food may have ended up in the hands of the Libyan government without the company's (UNIFO) knowledge; it furthermore stated that food was "not military" in nature.
25 June
Human-rights organisations cast doubt on claims of mass rape and other abuses perpetrated by forces loyal to Gaddafi, which had been widely used to justify NATO's war in Libya. NATO leaders, opposition groups and the media had produced a stream of stories since 15 February claiming the Gaddafi government had ordered mass rapes, used foreign mercenaries and employed helicopters against civilian protesters. An investigation by Amnesty International failed to find evidence for these human-rights violations and in many cases discredited or cast doubt on them. It also found indications that on several occasions Benghazi rebels appeared to have knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence. Liesel Gerntholtz, the head of women's rights at Human Rights Watch, which also investigated the charge of mass rape, said: "We have not been able to find evidence."
Rebels have repeatedly charged that mercenary troops from Central and West Africa had been used against them. Amnesty International found there was no evidence for this. "Those shown to journalists as foreign mercenaries were later quietly released," said Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser for Amnesty, who was in Libya for three months after the start of the uprising. "Most were sub-Saharan migrants working in Libya without documents." Others were not so lucky and were lynched or executed. Rovera found two bodies of migrants in the Benghazi morgue and others were dumped on the outskirts of the city.
Amnesty International also stated that there was no proof of mass killing of civilians in Libya, which was the basis for NATO's military intervention. Most of the fighting during the first days of the uprising was in Benghazi, where 100 to 110 people were killed, and the city of Bayda, where 59 to 64 were killed, said Amnesty International. Most of these were probably protesters, though some may have obtained weapons. There was no evidence that aircraft or heavy anti-aircraft machine guns were used against crowds. Spent cartridges picked up after protesters were shot at came from Kalashnikovs or similar calibre weapons. The Amnesty International findings confirmed a report by the authoritative International Crisis Group, which found that although the government had a history of brutal repression, there was no question of genocide. It added that "much Western media coverage has from the outset presented a very one-sided view of the logic of events, portraying the protest movement as entirely peaceful and repeatedly suggesting the regime's security forces were unaccountably massacring unarmed demonstrators who presented no security challenge".
26 June
African leaders met in Pretoria, South Africa, to try to come up with a peace proposal. No representatives of the Gaddafi government or of the opposition were present at the talks because the opposition held that Gaddafi must give up his seat before they would take part in any negotiations.
Opposition troops were believed to have advanced to just north of Bir Ayad near Bir al-Ghanam which is south of Zawiya, a western gateway to Tripoli.
27 June
The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his head of intelligence. It was only the second time in the court's history that it had issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state.
28 June
Rebels raided a loyalist army base at El Ga'a after it was hit by a NATO bomb. They captured ammunition and other equipment.
Both Croatia and Bulgaria recognized the NTC as a legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
29 June
The French military confirmed that it had air dropped weapons in June to Libyan rebels fighting in the highlands south of Tripoli, in violation of the UN arms embargo. While key NATO allies were arguing the need to protect civilians set out in UN Resolution 1973 overrides this, the French military was facing criticism for overstepping the resolution, especially from the African Union and Russia.
30 June
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK was offering 5,000 sets of body armor, 6,650 uniforms, 5,000 high-visibility vests and communications equipment to help police protect rebel leaders and international officials.
The Czech Republic government recognized the NTC as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people, and delivered aid to Libyan hospitals.
Early July (1–15 July)
1 July
Libyan rebels came close to Bir al-Ghanam, but retreated after being met with rocket fire.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Gaddafi's son, claimed that NATO had offered the government an "under the table" deal that would see the international arrest warrants against both men dropped.
In an exclusive interview with RT, Saif Gaddafi denied that he or anyone ordered killings of demonstrators in the early days of the uprising. He said that soldiers acted in self-defense as they were attacked by mobs.
Gaddafi warned Western allies that bombing of houses and offices in Europe would be a "legitimate target" since those are targeted in Libya. Gaddafi's taped message was broadcast to tens of thousands of supporters gathered in Green Square in Tripoli.
2 July
The Daily Telegraph reported that the Sudan People's Armed Forces seized the southern Libyan town of Kufra. Sudanese officials denied this.
The African Union called for Gaddafi to stay out of Libya talks to end the conflict.
Heavy shelling fell on Misrata and Dafniya, where fighting wounded eleven rebels.
NATO confirms it has been ramping up its airstrikes on military targets in western Libya in recent days, bombing Tripoli and Gharyan, a city about south of Tripoli, and armored vehicles in Bir al-Ghanam.
3 July
Libya rebels braced for a new push to Tripoli.
5 July
Pro-Gaddafi troops stated that they have captured a shipment of Qatari weapons that were headed to rebels by boat.
NTC Minister of Defence Jalal al-Digheily reportedly met with the Qatar Armed Forces chief of staff in Doha, Qatar.
6 July
Rebel fighters took the village of Al-Qawalish which is about south of Tripoli. That brought the opposition to within from Gharyan, the strategic garrison town of held by Gaddafi's troops and which dominates the main north–south road between Tripoli and the Sahara desert. The rebels claimed that Gaddafi was storing weapons in the Sahara desert and recruiting fighters from neighbouring countries there.
7 July
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there cannot be a quick outcome in Libya and that will lead to many casualties on both sides.
Chinese diplomat Chen Xiaodong, in charge of North African affairs at the Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China, met NTC members in Benghazi.
8 July
Gaddafi issued another audio message broadcast through state television, exclaiming that NATO, the rebels and others who oppose his rule will be trampled "under the feet of the Libyan masses", and also repeated his threats of violence against NATO member states in Europe, saying that "Hundreds of Libyans will martyr in Europe. I told you it is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth." Celebratory gunfire was heard in Tripoli following the broadcast.
NATO head Rasmussen told the Associated Press that progress was being made, but that political progress would be needed as well because "there is no military solution to the conflict solely."
NATO launched at least four bombs targeted against pro-Gaddafi forces in the Western Mountains, some east of the village of Al-Qawalish.
Poland officially opened diplomatic ties with the NTC by installing its ambassador in Benghazi.
Five Libyan rebels were killed and 17 wounded during fighting in Misrata.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report accusing the Gaddafi government of laying "at least three minefields containing antipersonnel and antivehicle landmines" in areas of civilian traffic near al-Qawalish; in particular, two of the minefields were placed on a dirt road leading to an outskirts Boy Scout building located west of al-Qawalish. The HRW also cited rebels clearing up some 240 Brazilian-made T-AB-1 antipersonnel mines and 46 Chinese-made Type-72SP anti-vehicle mines from the sites since 6 July. Steve Goose, HRW arms director, said "The government's blatant disregard for the safety of its civilians is shameful", and that "Landmines are a weapon that will claim civilian limbs and lives for years to come".
9 July
Four boats with 1,401 migrants from Libya landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata reported that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled his planned visit to the island.
A petro-chemical plant in Brega was destroyed by government troops, according to Ahmed Bani, refuting earlier allegations of rebel involvement in the destruction of the plant.
10 July
One rebel was killed and thirty-two wounded during an attempted rebel advance upon Zliten. The casualties resulted from land mines laid by retreating troops in the neighbourhood of Suq al-Thulatha.
Pro-Gaddafi forces launched a counter-attack on al-Qawalish with the launching of half a dozen Grad rockets into the hamlet. Rebels replied with anti-tank fire.
Egypt ended its unrestricted immigration policy for Libyan nationals traversing the border or airspace between the two countries.
11 July
Israeli television channel Arutz Sheva reported that Gaddafi was bracing for an assault by rebel fighters who had broken out in the Nusafa Mountain region. According to its report, Gaddafi had armed huge numbers of civilians in strategic towns overlooking Tripoli and planned to remain firmly ensconced.
12 July
After contacting Gaddafi, Paris officials stated that Gaddafi is "prepared to leave".
The French National Assembly voted overwhelmingly for further funding of NATO operations in Libya, with 482 deputies voting in favour and 27 against. The vote, while required, was a formality, according to Al Jazeera.
An airstrip laid out along a stretch of highway near Rhebat in the Nafusa Mountains was opened by a senior NTC minister, allowing an air connection via a small private company, Air Libya, between Benghazi and the Amazigh rebels.
13 July
The HWR criticized rebel treatment of civilian populations in the towns of al-Awaniya, Rayayinah, Zawiyat al-Bagul and al-Qawalish. Fred Abrahams, a special advisor for the HRW's program office, stated that "We documented fairly widespread looting of homes and shops, the burning of some homes of suspected Gaddafi supporters and – most disturbingly – the vandalisation of three medical clinics [and] local small hospitals, including the theft of some of the medical equipment." Rebel spokesman Mahmoud Jibril denied the allegations of civilian abuse, but a rebel commander in the Nafusa Mountains admitted some abuses had taken place, going on to say such attacks violated orders and some of those responsible had been punished.
Pro-Gaddafi forces launched a counter-attack on towns in Jabal al Gharbi District, causing the rebels to retreat from al-Qawalish. By the evening, the rebels counter-attacked and after a five-hour battle they retook the village and chased loyalist forces to the outskirts of Asbi'a. During the fighting, two rebels were killed and 17 wounded.
14 July
Russia's special representative for Africa Mikhail Margelov reported that Baghdadi Mahmudi told Margelov of a plan to "cover [Tripoli] with missiles and blow it up" if Tripoli was seized by the rebels.
Opposition forces armed with both light and heavy weapons, including tanks, armoured personnel carriers and technicals attempted to retake Brega.
The Democratic Party (Libya) was founded in London.
15 July
Japan and the US formally recognized the NTC as sole legitimate representative of Libya.
The Libya Contact Group recognised the NTC as the only legitimate governing body of Libya at a meeting in Istanbul. They noted that the Gaddafi government no longer had any legitimate authority in Libya and they recommended that certain members of his family should go. The Libya Contact Group includes over forty countries, the European Union, the African Union, the UN, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Gaddafi stated, in an audio message, that the recognition of the "so-called" NTC was insignificant and that the fight against the "colonial aggression" would continue. His speech was broadcast in front of thousands of supporters gathered on the main square in Zliten, around east of Tripoli and less than an hour drive from rebel-held Misrata.
Late July (16–31 July)
16 July
The rebel forces fought Gaddafi forces on the outskirts of Brega, suffering heavy casualties. At least 12 rebels were killed and 178 wounded.
18 July
The NTC claimed rebels took much of Brega and pro-Gaddafi forces were in retreat towards Ra's Lanuf. Between 150 and 200 loyalist troops reportedly remained in the town as rebels attempted to both clear them out and dismantle land mines. The government in Tripoli denied Brega had fallen, with spokesman Moussa Ibrahim telling a CNN reporter, "We will turn Brega into hell. We will not give Brega up, even if this causes the death of thousands of rebels and the destruction of the whole city."
19 July
The media reported that though the majority of Gaddafi's troops had retreated toward Ra's Lanuf, opposition fighters in Brega were still taking casualties from loyalist holdouts, landmines, and artillery directed against the western outskirts of the port city. An NTC spokesman admitted that it would likely take at least ten more days for the anti-Gaddafi forces to secure Brega and its environs. Later in the evening, opposition commanders said they had withdrawn forces from Brega under artillery fire to aid in disarming minefields east of the city. They claimed to control about one-third of Brega, including the residential area of New Brega, but did not hold the port.
Al Jazeera reported that tens of thousands of Gaddafi's supporters rallied in 'Aziziya, southwest of Tripoli. Waving the green flags and chanting "Only God, Muammar and Libya" the supporters gathered in the town main square.
20 July
The Wall Street Journal reported the opening of a new front in southwestern Libya near the desert city of Sabha, where opposition fighters operating out of Kufra allegedly captured a small village to the south and were reportedly preparing to advance on Sabha itself.
Even as the rebel offensive toward Brega was hampered by shelling and booby traps, anti-Gaddafi forces advanced to within of Zliten, opposition sources said.
NTC Defence Minister Jalal al-Digheily visited Nalut to tour the Nafusa Mountains front and tout the alliance between Arab and Amazigh fighters in the region.
21 July
In heavy fighting near Zliten, the rebels reportedly captured a loyalist general of the Hamza Brigade, Gen. Abdul Nabih Zayed.
NTC Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said he had credible information that Gaddafi loyalists have rigged oil facilities in Brega to explode if the Libyan Army was forced to abandon the town. Opposition fighters continued to work to disarm mines and booby-traps planted in and around Brega.
Gaddafi ruled out talks with the opposition fighters seeking to end his forty-one-year-rule, but a spokesman from his government has not ruled out dialogue with the US. "There will be no talks between me and them until Judgment Day," Gaddafi told a crowd of thousands of his supporters in his home city of Sirte in a remotely delivered audio message.
The Libyan government said that NATO air strikes targeted civilian sites in Zliten. Foreign media were shown destroyed buildings and wounded civilians in the town.
22 July
A US State Department spokesman said the US government was looking into allegations by rebels in western Libya that on 19 July, Algeria allowed a Libyan-flagged ship loaded with weapons to dock in the Algerian port of Djen Djen, then shipped those weapons overland to Libya for use by Gaddafi's troops. The spokesman said that if true, this action would place Algeria in violation of UNSCR 1970 and UNSCR 1973, which forbid arms trafficking to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. There was evidence that Qatar had been sending crates of ammunition along with humanitarian supplies, although Al Jazeera stated that they were "unable to find out if they were for the Qatari security forces to use or the rebels".
23 July
Loyalist forces recaptured Qatrun in the southern Libyan Desert, forcing Toubou tribesmen allied with the National Liberation Army (NLA) to retreat south of the town.
Several thousand people gathered in the centre of Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown, during another of a series of pro-Gaddafi rallies in the past weeks to show support to Gaddafi.
24 July
Germany began offering loans of up to $144 million to the NTC to help with humanitarian needs and rebuilding. Guido Westerwelle announced that his country is giving out loans, because Gaddafi's frozen assets cannot be released at the time.
NATO war planes destroyed two command and control nodes, two surface-to-air missile launchers, and one anti-aircraft gun in Tripoli; while rebels also repulsed a counter-attack, by loyalist forces in the southwest.
It was reported that the Libyan opposition forces had repelled an offensive by government troops in the town of Qwalish. Sunday's attack was aimed at recapturing the strategic desert town, southwest Tripoli. Witnesses said dozens of civilians were sent to the area just before the attack. Opposition fighters seized control of the region earlier this month.
25 July
Reuters reported that a group of Libyan diplomats and staff stormed the Libyan embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, smashing statues and portraits of Gaddafi and declaring the embassy under the control of the opposition forces. Footage from private Bulgarian television station, bTV, showed several opposition supporters taking down the Libyan flag and smashing a bust of Gaddafi to pieces in the embassy's yard. The group detained the charge d'affairs of the embassy and his secretary, who declined to denounce the Libyan leader. The two were later allowed to leave, Reuters said, citing bTV.
26 July
The pro-Gaddafi government would not agree to negotiations while NATO airstrikes are ongoing, said Baghdadi Mahmudi, prime minister of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, after meeting with a UN envoy. He also said that Gaddafi could not be asked to leave power or quit Libya.
CNN reported that NATO warplanes had struck a health clinic, a food-storage complex and a military base in Zliten, allegedly killing at least 11 civilians. The video report also shows ruins of a mosque and school located on the outskirts of the city which were destroyed by air strikes. NATO later issued a statement where they rejected claims that they have hit non-military targets near the coastal city, claiming instead to have hit a command and control node and a vehicle storage facility.
27 July
The Financial Times reported several cases of officials in Gaddafi's government "manicuring the facts". One example was a house in Zliten that government officials claimed was bombed by NATO warplanes and had no military use. However, a man was hastily trying to hide a soldier's green helmet and army uniforms there. Another building was claimed by officials to have been used by a Turkish road construction company but there was graffiti on the walls that appeared to have been written by Libyan soldiers using it as a military base. One night at Triploli's port, a Gaddafi government minder pointed out a ship in flames in the dark and claimed it was a private yacht. The next morning, in the light of day, it was clear the burning vessel was a frigate.
28 July
Opposition forces in the Nafusa Mountains began an assault on Gaddafi forces in the towns of al-Jawsh and Ghazaya. They announced the capture of Ghazaya several hours later.
General Abdul Fatah Younis, top commander of the rebel forces, was arrested as some on the NTC questioned his loyalty. His assassination, allegedly en route to detention in Benghazi, was later announced by the NTC. A man was arrested in connection with the murder.
29 July
The body of Younis, shot and burned before being dumped outside Benghazi, was recovered and a funeral was held.
Suleiman Mahmoud was named to succeed Younis as the rebels' top commander.
In protest over Younis's death and the NTC's handling of the incident, the local committee and military commander in Misrata declared they would ignore orders from Benghazi.
Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni, a prominent member of the NTC, said the suspect arrested in connection with the Younis's assassination was a rebel militia leader whom the NTC had dispatched to arrest Younis and bring him back to Benghazi. Tarhouni said that the militia commander, whose name was not made public, claimed he was unable to stop his subordinates from shooting Younis and two of his aides instead of escorting them back to Benghazi as ordered. This account generally conformed to the claims of an eyewitness who made separate allegations earlier in the day, before Tarhouni spoke, blaming the attacks on members of the 17 February Martyrs' Brigade who allegedly claimed that Younis had their father killed several years earlier.
30 July
Early in the morning, NATO bombed three satellite dishes in Tripoli in an attempt to put state television off the air, but the channel continued to broadcast. NATO at first released a press video to journalists titled "NATO Silences Gaddafi's Terror Broadcasts" but later changed that to "NATO Strikes Libyan State TV Satellite Facility".
According to Khaled Basilia, the director of al-Jamahiriya television's English-language service, the airstrikes on the state broadcasters facilities killed three journalist and wounded another 15. He termed the air strike "an act of international terrorism" and says that it violated the UN resolutions under which NATO was acting. "We are not a military target, we are not commanders in the army and we do not pose threat to civilians," he said. He also demanded full protection from the international community. NATO said it was acting to "protect civilians" by hitting the site.
Libyan rebels captured the town of Takhut in the Western Mountains near the Wazin border crossing after previously taking Ghezaya. They also surrounded Tiji, the last loyalist town in the Western Mountains, and said they expected to take it by the end of the day.
The Associated Press reported a long line of refugees attempting to return home to Nalut had formed on the Tunisian side of the Dhuheiba border crossing.
Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the leader of the NTC, admitted that the murder of Abdul Fatah Younis had been carried out after the general was arrested and recalled to Benghazi for questioning. He said it did not appear to be the work of Islamists, noting the throats of Younis and his two aides had not been cut, and said that although the killers were rebel fighters, the assassination may have been part of a plot by pro-Gaddafi loyalists to sow chaos within the opposition. However, a reporter with Al Jazeera said Younis's supporters did not appear dissuaded from blaming Islamists within the rebel ranks for the triple slaying.
In response to the Younis's assassination, apparently by rogue brigands aligned with anti-Gaddafi forces, top NTC officials Mustafa Abdul Jalil and Ali Tarhouni said armed civilian militias must disband, and volunteers would be given the option to join the NLA at the frontlines, join the Benghazi security forces in patrolling the rebels' de facto capital, or end their belligerence in the civil war.
31 July
Fighters loyal to the NTC raided a Benghazi neighborhood and traded gunfire with members of a militia group that refused to surrender their arms in compliance with the NTC's edict that all militias must disband. The NTC forces reportedly stormed a license plate factory during the early-morning clashes and arrested close to 50 militiamen. At a news conference, officials claimed the fighters constituted a fifth column of Gaddafi loyalists masquerading as rebels, but journalists were unable to independently confirm these assertions. Three NTC soldiers were killed and eight injured, while the rogue militia suffered four dead and twelve wounded, according to the NTC.
Rebels reportedly captured Al-Josh in the Western Mountains. However, loyalist forces did not retreat far from the city. Hours later, the village was retaken by loyalist forces and the rebels were driven out.
Reuters reported that an estimated 5,000 residents of Ghezaya, supporters of Gaddafi, were transported to Tripoli during the rebels' advance against the town before they have seized it, leaving behind a ghost town. Gaddafi has always maintained supporters in Ghazaia and other places in the plains below the Western Mountains, despite international pressure on him to step down.
Contrary to earlier reports that rebel authorities in Misrata had split from the NTC in Benghazi, Misrata's top military commander said there were no divisions in the anti-Gaddafi forces over Abdul Fatah Younis's death, adding, "This will not hinder the revolution."
Early August (1–15 August)
1 August
According to The Guardian, opposition fighters claimed to have captured Zliten, west of Misrata. However, Al Jazeera reported that the situation was still "fluid" and said heavy fighting was still taking place in and around the city.
The Norwegian government announced it had completed withdrawing its six fighter jets from Operation Unified Protector. Norwegian F-16 Fighting Falcons carried out 583 missions out of a total of 6,493 flown by NATO warplanes since 31 March, a military spokesman said.
2 August
Early in the morning rebel forces managed to push westwards, reaching the civilian populated areas of Zliten, sparking clashes with Gaddafi's forces in the town. While in the town's centre, the rebels waited for an approval of Zliten's Fowater tribe to take control of the town, but they did not immediately agree.
Several hours later, the rebels were flanked in a surprise attack by loyalist forces along the entire line they had on the outskirts of the town and they were forced to withdraw, sustaining heavy casualties in the process. Reuters reported that at least seven rebels were killed and 65 wounded during a loyalist counter-attack. An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that rebel fighters from Misrata are reluctant to go into Zliten again, because they could be perceived by the people of that town as invading it and bringing the fight to them. Zliten was defended by the Khamis Brigade under the leadership of Khamis Gaddafi.
The tribe of assassinated rebel commander Abdul Fatah Younis vowed to find justice for themselves if those responsible for his death were not quickly found. Younis was a member of the Ubaideyat tribe, one of the largest in Libya.
The International Organization for Migration declared the success of an operation that it claimed had airlifted 1,398 stranded migrants, mostly Chadians, out of Libya as of 30 July.
3 August
Libyan rebels seized control of an oil tanker ship, believed to belong to the Gaddafi government, in the Mediterranean Sea near Malta, which contained up to 250,000 barrels of fuel. The ship was then diverted by rebels on board to the port of Benghazi.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said that his family had forged an alliance with Islamists against secular liberal rebels. "Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran. So what?," he stated, also saying that the liberals would "escape or be killed."
The International Federation of Journalists condemned deliberate NATO bombing of Libyan State TV, which allegedly killed three journalists and wounded another fifteen, during an air raid on 30 July.
Msallata, a town east of Tripoli behind loyalist lines, reportedly revolted against Gaddafi at sunset, leaving three dead and the town under virtual quarantine.
4 August
Ali Sallabi, a senior rebel leader of Islamist persuasion, denied any split with between Islamist rebels and their liberal compatriots, characterizing it as a "lie that seeks to create a crack in the national accord." Sallabi did acknowledge that there were contacts with Saif Gaddafi, but said that "Our dialogue with them is always based on three points: Gaddafi and his sons must leave Libya, the capital (Tripoli) must be protected from destruction and the blood of Libyans must be spared." He said that relations between secular and Islamist rebels were strong because both supported "justice and pluralism."
Abdel Karim Bin Taher, an NTC official, attributed the death of Younis to "the fifth column," while residents of Derna denied that their town had significant numbers of Islamic extremists.
Loyalist forces were back in full control of Zliten and journalists taken on an official tour of the town by government officials. While on a tour, they were also present at a burial of three coffins, allegedly containing remains of a local woman and her two children, aged three and five, who were killed by NATO air strikes according to the local residents.
Salah Mohamed Askar, a member of an NBC News team in the Nafusa Mountains, was killed in a rocket attack near Teji.
5 August
Rebels claimed a NATO strike killed Khamis Gaddafi, Gaddafi's youngest son. This was the second time in the conflict that the rebels had claimed to have killed Khamis. Both Moussa Ibrahim and Khaled Kaim denied claims that Khamis had been killed, the latter dismissing it as a "dirty trick" to cover up the killing of members of the al-Marabit family. A NATO spokesman in Brussels, Belgium, also said they could not confirm Khamis's death.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, claimed that the southern regions of Libya were "practically under the NTC's control", that the rebels were making progress around, and that it was far too early to speak of getting "bogged down". He also expressed confidence in the NTC.
An international media safety group was joining calls for the UN to investigate NATO's bombing of Libyan state television. The International News Safety Institute (INSI) asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to investigate whether the airstrike was in breach of a UN Security Council resolution that bans attacks on journalists. INSI director Rodney Pinder said such attacks could not be excused "on the basis that you disagree with the point of view of the news organizations".
6 August
The NTC announced a new program as part of a temporary financial mechanism to distribute 14 million Libyan dinars "for a Family Support Programme to be distributed directly to families throughout the Nafusa Mountains" during Ramadan. In a statement, it said working people in the mountains had not been paid wages since January 2011, and the payments would help "kick-start the economy".
Opposition forces captured Bir al-Ghanem in western Libya in their advance toward Zawiya. Six rebel fighters were killed to an unknown number of loyalist casualties.
Msallata, west of Zliten, was besieged by loyalist forces, and a member of its rebel military committee said he expected a bloodbath.
A Qatari transport plane landed briefly in Misrata to offload ammunition for rebels in their offensive to take Zliten.
Rebel commanders said the NLA renewed its push toward Brega and had forces advancing from three sides, though they said the advance was relatively slow due to the lingering threat of minefields around the port city.
7 August
Pro-Gaddafi forces attempted to retake Bir al-Ghanam. Though a Gaddafi government spokesman said it held the town, rebel commanders disputed the report and said the counterattack had been repulsed. A Western photojournalist working in western Libya tweeted that when he visited Bir al-Ghanam in the afternoon, the town was still in rebel hands, but there was no other independent verification of the claims during the day. An Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from near Bir al-Ghanam said rebels were continuing to advance.
Al Jazeera reported that an attempt by thirty Libyan Army vehicles to outflank rebel forces advancing on Zliten was abandoned when the loyalists came under fire from the Shaheed unit, said to be among the most elite rebel outfits. Five of the vehicles were reportedly left behind in the retreat. The number of dead was unknown, but Al Jazeera's field correspondent reported that loyalists took significant casualties.
8 August
The NTC fired its executive board and asked the board's chairman, Mahmoud Jibril, to submit his recommendations for a new cabinet to the council. NTC Chairman Jalil said the decision was undertaken as a result of the board's handling of Younis's killing, saying, "The members of the executive bureau did not dispose with the assassination issue in a proper manner." Other NTC officials added that the amount of time ministers spent outside of Libya, especially in Doha, Qatar, was a reason for the board's dismissal. Jibril, the only member of the board who was not sacked, would be asked to spend more time in Libya as a condition of his continued tenure as the executive board's chairman, a spokesman said.
Reuters confirmed that Bir al-Ghanam remained under rebel control. Rebels in the town said they were preparing to march on Zawiya.
The NTC announced the formation of a dedicated security force to protect oil installations in Cyrenaica.
9 August
A Gaddafi government spokesman said 85 civilians – 33 children, 32 women and 20 men from 12 families – were killed by NATO airstrikes in Majer, a village south of Zliten. Imed Lamloum, an Agence France-Presse correspondent, reported that he and a group of foreign journalists, attended the funerals of victims and saw 28 bodies buried at the local cemetery. In the hospital morgue, 30 bodies, most of whom were young men but including two children and one woman, were shown along with other bodies which had been torn apart. A NATO spokesman said that after monitoring the military compound very carefully, they had targeted nine vehicles and four buildings in the area. "Our assessment, based on the level of destruction of the buildings, confirms the likelihood of military and mercenary casualties. The allegation of civilian casualties made by the Gaddafi regime was not corroborated by available factual information at the site."
NTC representatives formally took over the Libyan embassy to the UK in London, England.
10 August
The Tunisian Interior Ministry said police in M'saken, in northeastern Tunisia, had stopped five trucks loaded with petrol bound for Gaddafi-controlled western Libya. A Reuters source with the Libyan opposition confirmed the claim.
NATO denied it hit a civilian target in Majer, with a spokesman saying the targets of the airstrike were determined to be legitimate military targets and were "very carefully" identified and observed. He added that while NATO had expected casualties, its analysis "confirms the likelihood of military and mercenary casualties", and NATO did not believe it had caused any civilian casualties in the bombing.
Three NTC soldiers were killed near Brega.
Rebel fighters claimed they reached Nasr, south of Zawiya. However, they pulled back several kilometers after encountering strong resistance.
11 August
The government in Tripoli banned the unauthorised possession and use of Thuraya satellite telephones and threatened anyone in Libya found with one with execution. State-run media explained, "Spies among the traitors and the agents of ... NATO use the Thuraya telephones to give crusaders the coordinates of some locations to be bombed, which has caused the deaths of a large number of civilians." Reuters noted the phones are Emirati in origin and are also frequently used by foreign journalists in Libya.
The Emirati government turned over a captured Libyan Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane to the NTC in Benghazi, who welcomed it as the Free Libyan Air Force's "first cargo plane" and said it would be "used to transport humanitarian aid from abroad to Libya".
Rebels in western Libya claimed they had taken Nasr and Bir Shuaib, putting them less than from Zawiya, but they did not allow journalists all the way to the front to independently confirm the report. The signs of recent NATO airstrikes in Shalghouda, aiding the fighters' advance, were observed by Western reporters.
An NLA spokesman near Brega said most civilians and loyalist soldiers had fled from the port city. Late in the day, rebel forces claimed to have "liberated" Brega. Al Jazeera reported that while the eastern, residential parts of Brega seemed to be under rebel control, fighting was still taking place in the south of the city, and the western part remained in pro-Gaddafi hands. At least eight rebel soldiers were killed and about twenty-five more were injured during the fighting. An injured soldier told Al Jazeera, "Brega has been liberated on 11 August 2011."
Tunisian troops were conducting regular checks at gas stations in southern Tunisia and policing the amount of gasoline or diesel fuel allotted per customer, according to a Tunisian Ministry of Defense spokesman, who said the new measures were intended to prevent fuel smuggling into Libya.
12 August
A prisoner of war claiming to be an intelligence officer said Gaddafi was still "very strong" and enjoyed the backing of about seventy percent of Tripoli residents.
France's aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R91), returned to the port of Toulon for maintenance after more than four months of continuous operations off the Libyan coast. French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech to forces aboard the Charles de Gaulle, reaffirming France's commitment to continue the aerial bombardment of Libya "until the end of the mission".
The Russian government moved to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1973 by strengthening economic sanctions against the Gaddafi government, freezing the assets of Gaddafi and his inner circle inside Russia and banning the use of Russian airspace by Libyan aircraft or any aircraft on a non-humanitarian mission to Libya.
NTC forces pushing southeast out of Misrata took control of Tawergha, though they continued to face lingering resistance in the old quarter of the city. An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that soldiers were conducting house-to-house sweeps in an effort to locate and arrest loyalist snipers in the city.
13 August
Opposition fighters briefly claimed they had taken control of Gharyan, but then later told the Associated Press that fighting there was renewed when loyalist forces pushed from the garrison city at the foot of the Nafusa Mountains returned with reinforcements. One anti-Gaddafi volunteer said many residents of Gharyan had risen up to join the fight against Gaddafi's soldiers. However, no journalists were allowed to the front, and these claims could not be confirmed. Late in the day, a rebel official said anti-Gaddafi forces had captured two fuel tankers, as well as weapons, vehicles, and ammunition, and controlled ninety-five percent of the city, with a loyalist brigade pinned down in one of Gharyan's numerous military bases.
A spokesman for rebel forces pushing toward Zawiya said fighters were surrounding the city and had made contact with its residents, who signaled readiness to join the fight as they approached. A Reuters producer and his crew reported the coastal highway was blocked at Zawiya and they could hear the sound of gunfire on the city's outskirts. Al Jazeera English reported that fighting was taking place inside the city, and an Associated Press reporter on the scene reported residents of the city were rushing into the streets by the hundreds to greet the rebels as they entered Zawiya. One force reportedly advanced to a bridge on the southwestern edge of the city, while another group punched through into the city centre. By nightfall, the rebels reportedly occupied the city centre but did not yet have full control, with fighting raging back and forth across the arterial highway running through the city. A Gaddafi government spokesman denied rebels had taken the city, calling it a "suicide mission" and saying they had been "stopped easily".
A colonel held in Misrata as a POW by the rebels said Gaddafi used mercenaries to force the regular army to fight and keep them from deserting. He said that at the time he was captured roughly two months prior, divisions were forming between the army and the mercenaries. "I think it will soon collapse," he claimed of the loyalist fighting force.
A NATO airstrike against loyalist positions in Brega destroyed two armored vehicles and killed six Libyan Army servicemen.
Rebel forces moved to capture the Ras Ajdir border crossing with Tunisia, clashing with loyalist troops defending the crossing.
An NTC spokesman claimed Tawergha was secured and rebels had taken up new positions south of the city, capturing a bridge on the highway to Sirte. An officer involved in the successful offensive said that despite the loss of twelve anti-Gaddafi fighters, "Our martyrs can rest easy in their graves, and the children can sleep easy in their beds."
14 August
Reuters reported that rebels held the city centre of Zawiya, though rebel commanders claimed loyalist snipers remained in the city and a Reuters correspondent inside the city said occasional gunfire could be heard. Al Jazeera reported the city centre remained contested, though it quoted rebels as saying that they controlled seventy percent of Zawiya. A colonel with the Nafusi military command claimed in an interview with Al Jazeera that although fighting continued "as opposition forces are pushing pro-Gaddafi forces out", Zawiya was effectively under their control.
Rebels claimed they had taken Sorman, just west of Zawiya, but this report could not be immediately corroborated. A spokesman for opposition forces said ten rebels were killed and thirty-four were injured, but added that the city was secured and fighting had stopped.
Fighting reportedly continued in Gharyan, according to a rebel commander, though he said the city was controlled by the Libyan opposition.
Two Libyans crossing into Tunisia claimed they witnessed clashes in Sabratha, west of Sorman.
Reuters investigated eyewitness accounts of clashes at the Ras Ajdir border crossing from the previous evening and found loyalist Libyan customs and immigration officials operating normally, though occasional gunshots could be heard on the Libyan side of the border.
A rebel colonel in the Nafusa Mountains told Al Jazeera that Ajaylat had been secured by anti-Gaddafi forces.
15 August
Fighting continued in Zawiya, with rebels still unable to reach Martyrs' Square in the city's centre because of sniper fire and shelling. They told Al Jazeera they had arrested fifteen "mercenaries" and were attempting to clear the remaining pro-Gaddafi forces from the city.
Opposition forces said they had taken Gharyan and were in "full control" of the garrison city.
Negotiations between NTC and loyalist representatives reportedly took place in Tunisia. According to some reports, foreign officials were also present, including former Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib in his capacity as the UN's special envoy to Libya. One report suggested a representative from the Venezuelan government, a strong ally of Tripoli, was in attendance. Other reports said Qatari and South African aircraft were at Djerba, the Tunisian island where negotiations between the factions had historically been held. NTC Vice Chairman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga categorically denied his government was negotiating with the Gaddafi government, while the UN declined to confirm or deny whether Khatib was mediating negotiations.
Interior Minister Nasr al-Mabrouk Abdullah apparently defected from the Gaddafi government, flying to Cairo, Egypt, with his family.
Opposition fighters in Sabratha said they were negotiating the surrender of loyalist holdouts in the coastal town.
The NTC issued a statement urging people in areas still under Gaddafi's control to organise into local committees in preparation for the fall of the government.
Gaddafi loyalists in Sirte, in an apparent attempt at revenge for recent battlefield defeats, fired a Scud missile towards rebel-held territory near Ajdabiya, though it landed harmlessly in the desert. A Western official said, "That it didn't hit anything or kill anyone is not the point. It's a weapon of mass destruction that Colonel Gaddafi is willing to train on his own people."
Rebels in the Nafusa Mountains claimed to have finally taken Teji, though the report was not verified.
Opposition forces announced that Tripoli was cut off from supplies and effectively besieged, with routes through the cities of Zawiya and Gharyan under rebel control, and supply routes from Tunisia and the south of Libya into Tripoli blocked.
Continuation
For later events, see Timeline of the Libyan civil war and military intervention (16 August – 23 October), a chronology from 16 August up to the war's end.
See also
2011 military intervention in Libya
2011 Libyan rebel coastal offensive
2011 Nafusa Mountains Campaign
Arab Spring
List of modern conflicts in North Africa
References
External links
Timelines of the First Libyan Civil War |
68485 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic%20Park%20%28film%29 | Jurassic Park (film) | Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen. It is the first installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, and the first film in the Jurassic Park original trilogy, and is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton and a screenplay written by Crichton and David Koepp. The film is set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, located off Central America's Pacific Coast near Costa Rica. There, wealthy businessman John Hammond and a team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. When industrial sabotage leads to a catastrophic shutdown of the park's power facilities and security precautions, a small group of visitors and Hammond's grandchildren struggle to survive and escape the perilous island.
Before Crichton's novel was published, four studios put in bids for its film rights. With the backing of Universal Studios, Spielberg acquired the rights for $1.5 million before its publication in 1990; Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen. Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters.
Filming took place in California and Hawaii from August to November 1992, and post-production rolled until May 1993, supervised by Spielberg in Poland as he filmed Schindler's List. The dinosaurs were created with groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston's team. To showcase the film's sound design, which included a mixture of various animal noises for the dinosaur roars, Spielberg invested in the creation of DTS, a company specializing in digital surround sound formats. The film also underwent an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with over 100 companies.
Jurassic Park premiered on June 9, 1993, at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., and was released on June 11 in the United States. It went on to gross over $912 million worldwide in its original theatrical run, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1993 and the highest-grossing film ever at the time, a record held until the release of Titanic in 1997. It received highly positive reviews from critics, who praised its special effects, acting, John Williams' musical score, and Spielberg's direction. Following its 3D re-release in 2013 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Jurassic Park became the seventeenth and oldest film in history to surpass $1billion in ticket sales. The film won more than twenty awards, including three Academy Awards for its technical achievements in visual effects and sound design. Jurassic Park is considered a landmark in the development of computer-generated imagery and animatronic visual effects. The film was followed by four commercially successful sequels: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001), Jurassic World (2015), and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), with a fifth sequel, Jurassic World Dominion, scheduled for a 2022 release.
In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
Industrialist John Hammond has created a theme park of cloned dinosaurs, Jurassic Park, on Isla Nublar, an island off the Costa Rican coast. After a dinosaur handler is killed by a Velociraptor, the park's investors, represented by lawyer Donald Gennaro, demand that experts visit the park and certify its safety. Gennaro invites mathematician and chaos-theorist Ian Malcolm, while Hammond invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler. Upon arrival, the group is shocked to see a live Brachiosaurus.
At the park's visitor center, the group learns that the cloning was accomplished by extracting dinosaur DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes preserved in amber. DNA from frogs was used to fill in gaps in the genome of the dinosaurs, and to prevent breeding, all the dinosaurs were made female by omitting exposure to testosterone during a critical period in embryonic development. The group witnesses the hatching of a baby Velociraptor and visits the raptor enclosure. During lunch, the group debates the ethics of cloning and the creation of the park; Malcolm warns about the implications of genetic engineering and scoffs at the park's conceptualization, saying that it will inevitably break down.
The group is joined by Hammond's grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy, for a tour of the park, while Hammond oversees the tour from the control room. The tour does not go as planned, with most of the dinosaurs failing to appear and the group encountering a sick Triceratops; it is cut short as a tropical cyclone approaches Isla Nublar. Most of the park employees leave for the mainland on a boat while the visitors return to their electric tour vehicles, except Sattler, who stays behind with the park's veterinarian to study the Triceratops.
Jurassic Park's disgruntled lead computer programmer, Dennis Nedry, has been bribed by Dodgson, a man working for Hammond's corporate rival, to steal fertilized dinosaur embryos. Nedry deactivates the park's security system to gain access to the embryo storage room and stores the embryos inside a container disguised as a shaving cream can. Nedry's sabotage also cuts power to the tour vehicles, stranding them just as they near the park's Tyrannosaurus rex paddock. Most of the park's electric fences are deactivated as well, allowing the Tyrannosaurus to escape and attack the group. After the Tyrannosaurus overturns a tour vehicle, it injures Malcolm and devours Gennaro, while Grant, Lex and Tim escape. On his way to deliver the embryos to the island's docks, Nedry becomes lost in the rain, crashes his Jeep Wrangler, and is killed by a Dilophosaurus.
Sattler helps the game warden, Robert Muldoon, search for survivors; they recover an injured Malcolm, but are chased away by the returning Tyrannosaurus before they can find Grant, Tim, and Lex, who take shelter in a treetop and encounter a Brachiosaurus. Those three later discover the broken shells of dinosaur eggs, and Grant concludes that the dinosaurs have been breeding, which occurred because of their frog DNA—some West African frogs can change their sex in a single-sex environment, allowing the dinosaurs to do so as well.
Unable to decipher Nedry's code to reactivate the security system, Hammond and chief engineer Ray Arnold reboot the park's system. The group shuts down the park's grid and retreats to an emergency bunker, while Arnold heads to a maintenance shed to complete the rebooting process. When Arnold fails to return, Sattler and Muldoon head to the shed. They discover the shutdown has deactivated the remaining fences and released the Velociraptors. Muldoon distracts the raptors, while Sattler goes to turn the power back on, before being attacked by a raptor and discovering Arnold's severed arm. Meanwhile, Muldoon is caught off-guard and killed by the other two raptors.
Grant, Tim, and Lex reach the visitor center. Grant heads out to look for Sattler, leaving Tim and Lex inside. Tim and Lex are pursued by the raptors in a kitchen, but they escape and join Grant and Sattler, who have returned. The group reaches the control room, where Lex uses a computer to restore the park's power, allowing Hammond to call for help. As the four try to escape by the front entrance, they are cornered by the raptors, but they escape when the Tyrannosaurus appears and kills the raptors. Hammond arrives in a jeep with Malcolm, and the group boards a helicopter to leave the island.
Cast
Richard Kiley has a cameo appearance as the voice of the Jurassic Park tour vehicle guide.
Production
Development
Michael Crichton originally conceived a screenplay about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur. He continued to wrestle with his fascination with dinosaurs and cloning until he began writing the novel Jurassic Park. Before its publication, Steven Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989, while he was discussing a screenplay with Crichton that would become the television series ER. Spielberg recognized what really fascinated him about Jurassic Park was it was "a really credible look at how dinosaurs might someday be brought back alongside modern mankind", going beyond a simple monster movie.
Before the book was published, Crichton had demanded a non-negotiable fee of $1.5 million for the film rights and a substantial percentage of the gross. Warner Bros. and Tim Burton, Columbia Pictures and Richard Donner, and 20th Century Fox and Joe Dante bid for the rights, but Universal Studios eventually acquired them in May 1990 for Spielberg. After completing Hook, Spielberg wanted to film Schindler's List. Sid Sheinberg, president of Music Corporation of America (Universal Pictures's parent company at the time) gave the green light to Schindler's List on the condition Spielberg make Jurassic Park first. He said later by choosing a creature-driven thriller, "I was really just trying to make a good sequel to Jaws, on land." Spielberg also cited Godzilla as an inspiration for Jurassic Park, specifically Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), which he grew up watching. During production, Spielberg described Godzilla as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening."
To create the dinosaurs, Spielberg thought of hiring Bob Gurr, who designed a giant mechanical King Kong for Universal Studios Hollywood's King Kong Encounter. Upon reflection, he felt life-sized dinosaurs would be too expensive and not at all convincing. Instead Spielberg sought the best effects supervisors in Hollywood. He brought in Stan Winston to create the animatronic dinosaurs; Phil Tippett (credited as Dinosaur Supervisor) to create go motion dinosaurs for long shots; Michael Lantieri to supervise the on-set effects; and Dennis Muren of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to do the digital compositing. Paleontologist Jack Horner supervised the designs, to help fulfill Spielberg's desire to portray the dinosaurs as animals rather than monsters. Certain concepts about dinosaurs, like the theory they evolved into birds and had very little in common with lizards, were followed. This prompted the removal of the raptors' flicking tongues in Tippett's early animatics, as Horner complained it was implausible. Winston's department created fully detailed models of the dinosaurs before molding latex skins, which were fitted over complex robotics. Tippett created stop-motion animatics of the raptors in the kitchen and the Tyrannosaurus attacking the car. Despite go motion's attempts at motion blurs, Spielberg found the end results unsatisfactory for a live-action feature film. Muren told Spielberg he thought the dinosaurs could be built using computer-generated imagery; the director asked him to prove it. ILM animators Mark Dippé and Steve Williams developed a computer-generated walk cycle for the T. rex skeleton and were approved to do more. When Spielberg and Tippett saw an animatic of the T. rex chasing a herd of Gallimimus, Spielberg said, "You're out of a job," to which Tippett replied, "Don't you mean extinct?" Spielberg later injected this exchange into the script, as a conversation between Malcolm and Grant. Although no go motion was used, Tippett and his animators were still used by the production to supervise dinosaur movement. Tippett acted as a consultant for dinosaur anatomy, and his stop motion animators were re-trained as computer animators. The animatics made by Tippett's team were also used, along with the storyboards, as a reference for what would be shot during the action sequences. ILM's artists were sent on private tours to the local animal park, so they could study large animals – rhinos, elephants, alligators, and giraffes – up close. They also took mime classes to aid in understanding movements.
Writing
Universal paid Crichton a further $500,000 to adapt his own novel, which he had finished by the time Spielberg was filming Hook. Crichton noted that because the book was "fairly long" his script had about 10 to 20 percent of the novel's content; scenes were dropped for budgetary and practical reasons, and the violence was toned down. Malia Scotch Marmo began a script rewrite in October 1991 over a five-month period, merging Ian Malcolm with Alan Grant.
Spielberg wanted another writer to rework the script, so Universal president Casey Silver recommended David Koepp, co-writer of Death Becomes Her. Koepp started afresh from Marmo's draft, and used Spielberg's idea of a cartoon shown to the visitors to remove much of the exposition that fills Crichton's novel. While Koepp tried to avoid excessive character detail "because whenever they started talking about their personal lives, you couldn't care less", he tried to flesh out the characters and make for a more colorful cast, with moments such as Malcolm flirting with Sattler leading to Grant's jealousy. Some characterizations were changed from the novel. Hammond went from being a ruthless businessman to a kindly old man, because Spielberg identified with Hammond's obsession with showmanship. He also switched the characters of Tim and Lex; in the book, Tim is aged eleven and interested in computers, and Lex is only seven or eight and interested in sports. Spielberg did this because he wanted to work with the younger Joseph Mazzello, and it allowed him to introduce the sub-plot of Lex's adolescent crush on Grant. Koepp changed Grant's relationship with the children, making him hostile to them initially to allow for more character development.
Two scenes from the book were ultimately excised. Spielberg removed the opening sequence with Procompsognathus attacking a young child as he found it too horrific. For budgetary reasons Koepp cut the T. rex chasing Grant and the children down a river before being tranquilized by Muldoon. Both parts were included in film sequels. Spielberg suggested adding the scene where the T. rex pursues a jeep, which at first only had the characters driving away after hearing the dinosaur's footsteps.
Casting
William Hurt was initially offered the role of Alan Grant, but turned it down without reading the script. Harrison Ford was also offered the role of Grant, before Sam Neill was ultimately cast three or four weeks before filming began. Neill said "it all happened real quick. I hadn't read the book, knew nothing about it, hadn't heard anything about it, and in a matter of weeks I'm working with Spielberg." Janet Hirshenson, the film's casting director, felt Jeff Goldblum would be the right choice to play Ian Malcolm after reading the novel. Jim Carrey also auditioned for the role. According to Hirshenson, Carrey "was terrific, too, but I think pretty quickly we all loved the idea of Jeff."
Cameron Thor had previously worked with Spielberg on Hook, and initially auditioned for the role of Malcolm, before trying out for the role of Dodgson. In the film, Dodgson gives Nedry a container disguised as a can of shaving cream that is used to transport the embryos. Thor said about his casting, "It just said 'shaving-cream can' in the script, so I spent endless time in a drug store to find the most photogenic. I went with Barbasol, which ended up in the movie. I was so broke that I took the can home after the audition to use it." Laura Dern was Spielberg's first choice for the role of Ellie Sattler though she was not the only actress offered the part. Robin Wright turned down the role. Gwyneth Paltrow and Helen Hunt auditioned for the role of Ellie Sattler. Spielberg chose to cast Wayne Knight as Dennis Nedry after seeing his acting performance in Basic Instinct, saying, "I waited for the credits to roll and wrote his name down."
Ariana Richards who plays Lex Murphy, said, "I was called into a casting office, and they just wanted me to scream. I heard later on that Steven had watched a few girls on tape that day, and I was the only one who ended up waking his sleeping wife on the couch, and she came running through the hallway to see if the kids were all right." Christina Ricci also auditioned for the role. Joseph Mazzello had screen-tested for a role in Hook, but was deemed too young. Spielberg promised him they would work together on a future film. Sean Connery was considered for the role of John Hammond before Richard Attenborough was chosen.
Filming
After 25 months of pre-production, filming began on August 24, 1992, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. While the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica were considered as locations, given they are the novel's settings, Spielberg's concerns over infrastructure and accessibility made him choose a place where he had already worked. The three-week shoot involved various daytime exteriors for Isla Nublar's forests. On September 11, Hurricane Iniki passed directly over Kauai, costing a day of shooting. Several of the storm scenes from the movie are of actual footage shot during the hurricane. The scheduled shoot of the Gallimimus chase was moved to Kualoa Ranch on the island of Oahu. One of the early scenes had to be created by digitally animating a still shot of scenery. The opening scene was shot in Haiku, on the island of Maui, with additional scenes filmed on the "forbidden island" of Niihau. The exterior of the Visitor Center was a large façade constructed on the grounds of the Valley House Plantation Estate in Kauai. Samuel L. Jackson was to film a lengthy death scene where his character is chased and killed by raptors, but the set was destroyed by Hurricane Iniki.
By mid-September, the crew moved to California, to shoot the raptors in the kitchen at Stage 24 of the Universal studio lot. Given the kitchen set was filled with reflective surfaces, cinematographer Dean Cundey had to carefully plan the illumination while also using black cloths to hide the light reflections. The crew also shot the scenes involving the power supply on Stage 23, before going on location to Red Rock Canyon for the Montana dig scenes. The crew returned to Universal to shoot Grant's rescue of Tim, using a fifty-foot prop with hydraulic wheels for the car fall, and the Brachiosaurus encounter. The crew filmed scenes for the Park's labs and control room, which used animations for the computers lent by Silicon Graphics and Apple. While Crichton's book features electric-powered Toyota Land Cruisers as the tour cars in Jurassic Park, Spielberg made a deal with the Ford Motor Company, who provided seven Ford Explorers. The Explorers were modified by ILM's crew and veteran customizer George Barris to create the illusion they were autonomous cars by hiding the driver in the car's trunk. Barris also customized the Jeep Wranglers featured in the production.
The crew moved to Warner Bros. Studios' Stage 16 to shoot the T. rex attack on the LSX powered SUVs. Shooting proved frustrating because when water soaked the foam rubber skin of the animatronic dinosaur, it caused the T. rex to shake and quiver from the extra weight when the foam absorbed it. This forced Stan Winston's crew to dry the model with shammys between takes. On the set, Malcolm distracting the dinosaur with a flare was included at Jeff Goldblum's suggestion. He felt a heroic action was better than going by the script, where like Gennaro, Malcolm was scared and ran away. The ripples in the glass of water caused by the T. rexs footsteps were inspired by Spielberg listening to Earth, Wind and Fire in his car, and the vibrations the bass rhythm caused. Lantieri was unsure how to create the shot until the night before filming when he put a glass of water on a guitar he was playing, which achieved the concentric circles in the water Spielberg wanted. The next morning, guitar strings were put inside the car and a man on the floor plucked them to achieve the effect. Back at Universal, the crew filmed scenes with the Dilophosaurus on Stage 27. Finally, the shoot finished on Stage 12, with the climactic chases with the raptors in the Park's computer rooms and Visitor's Center. Spielberg changed the climax to bring back the T. rex, abandoning the original ending where Grant uses a platform machine to maneuver a raptor into a fossil tyrannosaur's jaws. The scene, which already included the juxtaposition of live dinosaurs in a museum filled with fossils, while also destroying the bones, now had an ending where the T. rex saved the protagonists, and afterwards made what Spielberg described as a "King Kong roar" while an ironic banner reading "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" flew. The film wrapped twelve days ahead of schedule on November 30, and within days, editor Michael Kahn had a rough cut ready, allowing Spielberg to go ahead with filming Schindler's List.
Dinosaurs on screen
Despite the title of the film's referencing the Jurassic period, Brachiosaurus and Dilophosaurus are the only dinosaurs featured that actually lived during that time; the other species featured did not exist until the Cretaceous period. This is acknowledged in the film during a scene where Dr. Grant describes the ferocity of the Velociraptor to a young boy, saying: "Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous period..."
Alamosaurus appears as a skeleton in the Jurassic Park visitor center.
Brachiosaurus is the first dinosaur seen by the park's visitors. It is inaccurately depicted as chewing its food and standing up on its hind legs to browse among the high tree branches. According to artist Andy Schoneberg, the chewing was done to make the animal seem docile, resembling a cow chewing its cud. The dinosaur's head and upper neck was the largest puppet without hydraulics built for the film. Despite scientific evidence of their having limited vocal capabilities, sound designer Gary Rydstrom decided to represent them with whale songs and donkey calls to give them a melodic sense of wonder. Penguins were also recorded to be used in the noises of the dinosaurs.
Dilophosaurus was also very different from its real-life counterpart, made significantly smaller to ensure audiences did not confuse it with the raptors. Its neck frill and its ability to spit venom are fictitious. Its vocal sounds were made by combining a swan, a hawk, a howler monkey, and a rattlesnake. The animatronic model, nicknamed "Spitter" by Stan Winston's team, was animated by the puppeteers sitting on a trench in the set floor, using a paintball mechanism to spit the mixture of methyl cellulose and K-Y Jelly that served as venom.
Gallimimus are featured in a stampede scene where one of them is devoured by the Tyrannosaurus. The Gallimimus was the first dinosaur to be digitized, being featured in two ILM tests, first as a herd of skeletons and then fully skinned while pursued by the T. rex. Its design was based on ostriches, and to emphasize the birdlike qualities, the animation focused mostly on the herd rather than individual animals. As reference for the dinosaurs' run, the animators were filmed running at the ILM parking lot, with plastic pipes standing in as the tree that the Gallimimus jump over. The footage inspired the incorporation of an animal falling as one of the artists did trying to make the jump. Horse squeals became the Gallimimuss sounds.
Parasaurolophus appear in the background during the first encounter with the Brachiosaurus.
Triceratops has an extended cameo, depicted as sick from eating a toxic plant. Its appearance was a logistical nightmare for Stan Winston when Spielberg asked to shoot the animatronic of the sick creature earlier than expected. The model, operated by eight puppeteers in the Kaua'i set, wound up being the first dinosaur filmed during production. Winston also created a baby Triceratops for Ariana Richards to ride on, a scene ultimately cut from the film for pacing reasons. Gary Rydstrom combined the sound of himself breathing into a cardboard tube with the cows near his workplace at Skywalker Ranch to create the Triceratops vocals.
Tyrannosaurus was acknowledged by Spielberg as "the star of the movie", and he rewrote the ending to feature the T. rex for fear of disappointing the audience. Winston's animatronic T. rex stood , weighed , and was long. Jack Horner called it "the closest I've ever been to a live dinosaur". While the consulting paleontologists did not agree on the dinosaur's movement, particularly its running capabilities, animator Steve Williams decided to "throw physics out the window and create a T. rex that moved at sixty miles per hour even though its hollow bones would have busted if it ran that fast". The major reason was the T. rex chasing a Jeep, a scene that took two months to finish. The dinosaur is depicted with a vision system based on movement, though later studies indicated the T. rex had binocular vision comparable to a bird of prey. Its roar is a baby elephant mixed with a tiger and an alligator, and its breath is a whale's blow. A dog attacking a rope toy was used for the sounds of the T. rex tearing a Gallimimus apart, while cut sequoias crashing to the ground became the sound of the dinosaur's footsteps.
Velociraptor plays a major role in the film. The creature's depiction is ultimately not based on the actual dinosaur genus in question, which was also significantly smaller. Shortly before Jurassic Parks theatrical release, the similar Utahraptor was discovered, although it proved to be even bigger in appearance than the film's raptors. This prompted Stan Winston to joke, "We made it, then they discovered it." For the attack on character Robert Muldoon and some parts of the kitchen scene, the raptors were played by men in suits. Dolphin screams, walruses bellowing, geese hissing, an African crane's mating call, tortoises mating, and human rasps were mixed to formulate various raptor sounds. Following discoveries made after the film's release, most paleontologists theorize that dromaeosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus were fully covered with feathers like modern birds. This feature is included only in Jurassic Park III for the male raptors, who are shown with a row of small quills on their heads.
Post-production
Special effects work continued on the film, with Tippett's unit adjusting to new technology with Dinosaur Input Devices: models which fed information into computers to allow them to animate the characters like stop motion puppets. In addition, they acted out scenes with the raptors and Gallimimus. As well as the computer-generated dinosaurs, ILM also created elements such as water splashing and digital face replacement for Ariana Richards' stunt double. Compositing the dinosaurs onto the live action scenes took around an hour. Rendering the dinosaurs often took two to four hours per frame, and rendering the T. rex in the rain took six hours per frame. Spielberg monitored their progress from Poland during the filming of Schindler's List, and had teleconferences four times a week with ILM's crew. The director described working simultaneously in two vastly different productions as "a bipolar experience", where he used "every ounce of intuition on Schindler's List and every ounce of craft on Jurassic Park". Some of the software used to create dinosaurs and other visual effects was Pixar's RenderMan and Softimage 3D.
Along with the digital effects, Spielberg wanted the film to be the first with digital sound. He funded the creation of DTS (digital theater system), which allows audiences to "really hear the movie the way it was intended to be heard". The sound effects crew, supervised by George Lucas, were finished by the end of April. Sound designer Gary Rydstrom considered it a fun process, given the film had all kinds of noise—animal sounds, rain, gunshots, car crashes—and at times no music. During the process, Spielberg would take the weekends to fly from Poland to Paris, where he would meet Rydstrom to see the sound progress. Jurassic Park was finally completed on May 28, 1993.
Music
John Williams began scoring the film at the end of February, and it was recorded a month later. Alexander Courage and John Neufeld provided the score's orchestrations. As with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another Spielberg film he scored, Williams felt he needed to write "pieces that would convey a sense of 'awe' and fascination" given it dealt with the "overwhelming happiness and excitement" that would emerge from seeing live dinosaurs. In turn more suspenseful scenes such as the Tyrannosaurus attack required frightening themes. The first soundtrack album was released on May 25, 1993. For the 20th anniversary of the film's release, a new soundtrack was issued for digital download on April 9, 2013, including four bonus tracks personally selected by Williams.
Release
Universal took the lengthy pre-production period to carefully plan the Jurassic Park marketing campaign. It cost $65 million and included deals with 100 companies to market 1,000 products. These included: three Jurassic Park video games by Sega and Ocean Software; a toy line by Kenner distributed by Hasbro; McDonald's "Dino-Sized meals"; and a novelization for young children.
The film's trailers provided only a fleeting glimpse of the dinosaurs, a tactic journalist Josh Horowitz described as "that old Spielberg axiom of never revealing too much" after Spielberg and director Michael Bay did the same for their production of Transformers in 2007. The film was marketed with the tagline "An Adventure 65 Million Years in the Making". This was a joke Spielberg made on set about the genuine, thousands of years old mosquito in amber used for Hammond's walking stick.
The film premiered at the Uptown Theater (Washington, D.C.) on June 9, 1993, in support of two children's charities. The film had previews on 1,412 screens starting at 9:30 pm EDT on Thursday, June 10, 1993, and officially opened on Friday in 2,404 theater locations and an estimated 3,400 screens. Following the film's release, a traveling exhibition called "The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park" began, showcasing dinosaur skeletons and film props. The film began its international release on June 25, 1993, in Brazil before further openings in South America and then rolling out around most of the rest of the world from July 16 until October. The United Kingdom premiere helped save the Lyric Theatre in Carmarthen, Wales from closure.
Television
Jurassic Park was broadcast on television for the first time on May 7, 1995, following the April 26 airing of The Making of Jurassic Park. Some 68.12 million people tuned in to watch, garnering NBC a 36 percent share of all available viewers that night. Jurassic Park was the highest-rated theatrical film broadcast on television by any network since the April 1987 airing of Trading Places. In June–July 1995 the film was aired a number of times on the Turner Network Television (TNT) network.
Theatrical re-releases
In anticipation of the Blu-ray release, Jurassic Park had a digital print released in UK cinemas on September 23, 2011. It wound up grossing £245,422 ($786,021) from 276 theaters, finishing at eleventh on the weekend box office list.
Two years later, on the 20th anniversary of Jurassic Park, a 3D version of the film was released in cinemas. Spielberg declared that he had produced the film with a sort of "subconscious 3D", as scenes feature animals walking toward the cameras and some effects of foreground and background overlay. In 2011, he stated in an interview that Jurassic Park was the only one of his works he had considered for a conversion. Once he saw the 3D version of Titanic in 2012, he liked the new look of the film so much that he hired the same retrofitting company, Stereo D. Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński closely supervised the nine-month process in-between the production of Lincoln. Stereo D executive Aaron Parry said the conversion was an evolution of what the company had done with Titanic, "being able to capitalize on everything we learned with Jim on Titanic and take it into a different genre and movie, and one with so many technical achievements." The studio had the help of ILM, which contributed some elements and updated effects shots for a better visual enhancement. It opened in the United States and seven other territories on April 5, 2013, with other countries receiving the re-release over the following six months. In 2018, the film was re-released in select theaters to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Home media
Jurassic Park was first released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 4, 1994. With 17 million units sold in both formats, Jurassic Park is the fifth best-selling VHS tape ever.
The film was also first released on a Collector's Edition DVD and VHS on October 10, 2000, in both Widescreen (1.85:1) and Full Screen (1.33:1) versions, and as part of a box set with the sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park and both movies' soundtrack albums. It was the 13th best-selling DVD of 2000 counting both versions, finishing the year with 910,000 units sold. Following the release of Jurassic Park III, a new box set with all the films called Jurassic Park Trilogy was released on December 11, 2001; it was re-released on VHS and DVD as part of its 15th anniversary on October 8, 2004. It was repackaged as Jurassic Park Adventure Pack on November 29, 2005.
The trilogy was released on Blu-ray on October 25, 2011, debuting at number five on the Blu-ray charts, and nominated as the best release of the year by both the Las Vegas Film Critics Society and the Saturn Awards. In 2012, Jurassic Park was among twenty-five films chosen by Universal for a box set celebrating the studio's 100th anniversary, while also receiving a standalone 100th anniversary Blu-ray featuring an augmented reality cover. The following year, the 20th anniversary 3D conversion was issued on Blu-ray 3D.
On June 1, 2016, Jurassic Park, along with its sequels The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, were added to the Netflix streaming service.
The film, alongside The Lost World, Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World, was released as part of a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray box set on May 22, 2018, in honor of the original film's 25th anniversary.
Reception
Box office
Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing film released worldwide up to that time, replacing Spielberg's own E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). It grossed $3.1 million from Thursday night screenings in the United States and Canada on June 10, and $47 million in its first weekend from 2,404 theaters, breaking the opening weekend record set by Batman Returns the year before. By the end of its first week, Jurassic Park had grossed a record $81.7 million, and remained at number one for three weeks. It eventually grossed $357 million in the U.S. and Canada, ranking second of all-time behind E.T. Box Office Mojo estimates the film sold over 86.2 million tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run.
The film also did very well in international markets and was the first to gross $500 million overseas, surpassing the record $280 million overseas gross of E.T. It broke opening records around the world including in the United Kingdom, Japan, India, South Korea, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Taiwan, Italy, Denmark, South Africa and France. In Japan, Jurassic Park grossed $8.4 million from 237 screens in two days (including previews) In the United Kingdom, it also beat the opening weekend record set by Batman Returns with a gross of £4.875 million ($7.4 million) from 434 screens, including £443,000 from Thursday night previews, and also beat Terminator 2: Judgment Days opening week record, with £9.2 million. After just three weeks, it became the highest-grossing film of all-time in the UK surpassing Ghost, eventually doubling the record with a gross of £47.9 million. In Australia, the film had the widest release ever and was the first film to open with a one-day gross of more than A$1 million, grossing A$5,447,000 (US$3.6 million) in its first four days from 192 screens beating the opening record of Terminator 2 and also beating the weekly record set by The Bodyguard with a gross of A$6.8 million. In the same weekend, it also set an opening record in Germany with a gross of 16.8 million Deutsche Mark ($10.5 million) from 644 screens. In Italy, it also had the widest release ever in 344 theaters and grossed a record 9.5 billion lire ($6.1 million). It eventually opened in France on October 20, 1993, and grossed a record 75 million French franc ($13 million) in its opening week from over 515 screens.
The film set all-time records in, among others, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Japan (in US Dollars), Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom. Ultimately the film grossed $912.7 million worldwide in its initial release, with Spielberg reportedly earning over $250 million from the film, the most a director or actor had earned from one film at the time. Its record gross was surpassed in 1998 by Titanic, the first film to gross over $1billion.
The 3D re-release of Jurassic Park in April 2013 opened at fourth place at the US box office, with $18.6 million from 2,771 locations. IMAX showings accounted for over $6 million, with the 32 percent being the highest IMAX share ever for a nationwide release. The international release had its most successful weekend in the last week of August, when it managed to climb to the top of the overseas box office with a $28.8 million debut in China. The reissue earned $45.4 million in the United States and Canada and $44.5 million internationally , leading to a lifetime gross of $402.5 million in the United States and Canada and $628.7 million overseas, for a worldwide gross of $1.029 billion, making Jurassic Park the 17th film to surpass the $1billion mark. It was the only Universal Pictures film to surpass the $1billion mark until 2015, when the studio had three such films, Furious 7, Minions, and the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World. The film earned an additional $374,238 in 2018 for its 25th anniversary re-release. In June 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic closing most theaters worldwide and limiting what films played, Jurassic Park returned to 230 theaters (mostly drive-ins). It grossed $517,600, finishing in first for the fourth time in its history. It became the first time a re-issue topped the box office since The Lion King in September 2011. It currently ranks as the 37th highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada (not adjusted for inflation) and the 40th highest-grossing film of all time.
Critical response
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively reported an approval rating of 92% based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Jurassic Park is a spectacle of special effects and life-like animatronics, with some of Spielberg's best sequences of sustained awe and sheer terror since Jaws." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "a true movie milestone, presenting awe- and fear-inspiring sights never before seen on the screen [...] On paper, this story is tailor-made for Mr. Spielberg's talents [but] [i]t becomes less crisp on screen than it was on the page, with much of the enjoyable jargon either mumbled confusingly or otherwise thrown away." In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers described the film as "colossal entertainment—the eye-popping, mind-bending, kick-out-the-jams thrill ride of summer and probably the year [...] Compared with the dinos, the characters are dry bones, indeed. Crichton and co-screenwriter David Koepp have flattened them into nonentities on the trip from page to screen." Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, saying, "The movie delivers all too well on its promise to show us dinosaurs. We see them early and often, and they are indeed a triumph of special effects artistry, but the movie is lacking other qualities that it needs even more, such as a sense of awe and wonderment, and strong human story values." Henry Sheehan of Sight & Sound argued, "The complaints over Jurassic Parks lack of story and character sound a little off the point," pointing out the story arc of Grant learning to protect Hammond's grandchildren despite his initial dislike of them. Empire magazine gave the film five stars, hailing it as "quite simply one of the greatest blockbusters of all time." The Duffer Brothers have both cited the film as an influence to the third season of Stranger Things.
Accolades
In March 1994, Jurassic Park won all three Academy Awards for which it was nominated: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects (at the same ceremony, Spielberg, editor Michael Kahn, and composer John Williams won Academy Awards for Schindler's List). The film won honors outside the U.S. including the 1994 BAFTA for Best Special Effects, as well as the Award for the Public's Favorite Film. It won the 1994 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and the 1993 Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction, Best Writing for Crichton and Koepp and Best Special Effects. The film won the 1993 People's Choice Awards for Favorite All-Around Motion Picture. Young Artist Awards were given to Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello, with the film winning an Outstanding Action/Adventure Family Motion Picture award. In 2001, the American Film Institute ranked Jurassic Park as the 35th most thrilling film of American cinema. The film is included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, film lists by Empire magazine, and The Guardian.
Legacy
Since its release, Jurassic Park has frequently been cited by film critics and industry professionals as one of the greatest movies of the action and thriller genres. The movie is also an example of a techno-thriller. The American Film Institute named Jurassic Park the 35th-most thrilling film of all time on June 13, 2001. On Empire magazine's 15th anniversary in 2004, it judged Jurassic Park the sixth-most influential film in the magazine's lifetime. Empire called the first encounter with a Brachiosaurus the 28th-most magical moment in cinema. In 2008, an Empire poll of readers, filmmakers, and critics also rated it one of the 500 greatest films of all time. On Film Reviews 55th anniversary in 2005, it declared the film to be one of the five most important in the magazine's lifetime. In 2006, IGN ranked Jurassic Park as the 19th-greatest film franchise ever. In a 2010 poll, the readers of Entertainment Weekly rated it the greatest summer movie of the previous 20 years. The popularity of the movie led the management of the National Basketball Association expansion franchise founded in Toronto in 1995 to adopt the nickname Raptors. In addition, during the team's playoff games, fans watch the game on a large television in a fan area outside the arena, which has been nicknamed Jurassic Park. The film is seen as giving rise to the "Jurassic Park" generation, to young people inspired to become paleontologists and to a surge in discoveries about dinosaurs in real life.
Jurassic Park's biggest impact on subsequent films was a result of its computer-generated visual effects. Film historian Tom Shone commented on the film's innovation and influence, saying that, "In its way, Jurassic Park heralded a revolution in movies as profound as the coming of sound in 1927." Many filmmakers saw Jurassic Parks effects as a realization that many of their visions, previously thought unfeasible or too expensive, were now possible. ILM owner George Lucas, realizing the success of creating realistic live dinosaurs by his own company, started to make the Star Wars prequels; Stanley Kubrick decided to invest in pet project A.I. Artificial Intelligence, to which he would later bring Spielberg to direct; and Peter Jackson began to re-explore his childhood love of fantasy films, a path that led him to The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. Jurassic Park has also inspired films and documentaries with dinosaurs such as the American adaptation of Godzilla, Dinosaur from the Deep, Carnosaur (in which Laura Dern's mother Diane Ladd starred), Dinosaur Island and Walking with Dinosaurs. Stan Winston, enthusiastic about the new technology pioneered by the film, joined with IBM and director James Cameron to form a new special effects company, Digital Domain.
Sequels and merchandise
After the enormous success of the film, Spielberg asked Crichton to write a sequel novel, leading to the 1995 book The Lost World. This, in turn, was adapted as the film The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Released in May 1997, it was directed by Spielberg and written by David Koepp. Another film, Jurassic Park III, was released in July 2001, under the direction of Joe Johnston, with Spielberg as executive producer. It featured an original script that incorporated unused elements from Crichton's original Jurassic Park. A fourth installment, Jurassic World, was released in theaters in June 2015. Spielberg again produced, with Colin Trevorrow directing a script he wrote with Derek Connolly. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth film in the franchise, was released in June 2018, with Spielberg as producer once more and J. A. Bayona as director. A sixth film, Jurassic World Dominion, will be directed by Trevorrow and is scheduled for release in June 2022.
The story of the film was continued in auxiliary media, at times even unattached to the film sequels themselves. These included a series of Jurassic Park comic books written by Steve Englehart for Topps Comics, and video games such as Ocean Software's Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues (1994), Vivendi's Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (2003) and Telltale Games' Jurassic Park: The Game (2011).
All of the Universal Parks & Resorts include a Jurassic Park-themed ride. The first was Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood on June 15, 1996, built after six years of development at a cost of $110 million. This attraction was replicated by Universal Studios Japan in 2001. Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, has an entire section of the park dedicated to Jurassic Park that includes the main ride, christened "Jurassic Park River Adventure", and many smaller rides and attractions based on the series. At Universal Studios Singapore, opened in 2010, the Themed Zone named "The Lost World" consists mostly of Jurassic Park rides, such as the roller coaster Canopy Flyer and the river rapids Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure.
See also
Survival film
References
Bibliography
External links
From Director Steven Spielberg: Jurassic Park archive
The Making of Jurassic Park (full documentary) at Documentary Mania
Jurassic Park films
Films about dinosaurs
Giant monster films
American monster movies
1990s monster movies
1990s science fiction adventure films
1993 films
2013 3D films
3D re-releases
Amblin Entertainment films
American films
American chase films
American science fiction thriller films
BAFTA winners (films)
Cultural depictions of mathematicians
Czech Lion Awards winners (films)
English-language films
Films about siblings
Films based on science fiction novels
Films based on works by Michael Crichton
Films directed by Steven Spielberg
Films produced by Gerald R. Molen
Films produced by Kathleen Kennedy
Films scored by John Williams
Films set in amusement parks
Films set in Costa Rica
Films set in Montana
Films set in the Dominican Republic
Films set in zoos
Films set on fictional islands
Films shot in Hawaii
Films shot in California
Films that won the Best Sound Editing Academy Award
Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award
Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award
Films with live action and animation
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation winning works
IMAX films
Jungle adventure films
American science fiction adventure films
Films with screenplays by David Koepp
Films with screenplays by Michael Crichton
Universal Pictures films
United States National Film Registry films |
585695 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanner%20Access%20Now%20Easy | Scanner Access Now Easy | Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE) is an application programming interface (API) that provides standardized access to any raster image scanner hardware (flatbed scanner, handheld scanner, video- and still-cameras, frame grabbers, etc.).
The SANE API is public domain and its discussion and development is open to everybody. It is commonly used on Linux.
Architecture
SANE differs from TWAIN in that it is cleanly separated into "front ends" (user programs) and "back ends" (scanner drivers). Whereas a TWAIN driver handles the user interface as well as communications with the scanner hardware, a SANE driver only provides an interface with the hardware and describes a number of "options" which drive each scan. These options specify parameters such as the resolution of the scan, the scan area, colour model, etc. Each option has a name, and information about its type, units, and range or possible values (e.g., enumerated list). By convention there are several "well known" options that front ends can supply using convenient GUI interaction e.g., the scan area options can be set by dragging a rectangular outline over a preview image. Other options can be presented using GUI elements appropriate to their type e.g., sliders, drop-down lists, etc.
One consequence of this separation is that network scanning is easily implemented with no special handling in either the front ends or back ends. On a host with a scanner, the saned daemon runs and handles network requests. On client machines a "net" back end (driver) connects to the remote host to fetch the scanner options, and perform previews and scans. The saned daemon acts as a front end locally, but simply passes requests and data between the network connections and the local scanner. Similarly, the "net" back end passes requests and data between the local front end and the remote host.
Various types of unsupervised batch scanning are also possible with a minimum of support needed in the back end (driver). Many scanners support the attachment of document feeders which allow a large number of sheets of paper to be automatically scanned in succession. Using the SANE API, the front end simply has to "play back" the same set of options for each scan, driving the document feed in between scans to load the next sheet of paper. The front end only has to obtain the set of options from the user once.
Graphical user interfaces
Several user interfaces have been written to combine SANE with an easy user method of controlling it.
gscan2pdf
gscan2pdf is an interface for scanning documents to PDF on the GNOME desktop that uses SANE to communicate with the scanner. It is available under the GPL. It includes common editing tools, e.g., for rotating or cropping pages. It is also able to perform OCR using several optional OCR tools and save a searchable PDF. PDF files can be further downsampled upon saving.
Simple Scan
Simple Scan is a simplified GUI using SANE that is intended to be easier to use and better integrate into the GNOME desktop than XSane. It was initially written for Ubuntu and is maintained by Robert Ancell of Canonical Ltd. for Linux. Simple Scan was first fielded as part of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and is also used in Lubuntu (until Lubuntu 18.04 LTS) and Xubuntu. It is now part of the GNOME project.
Skanlite
Skanlite is a simple image scanning application, based on the KSane backend. Kåre Särs is the lead developer. In KDE 4 Skanlite replaced Kooka of KDE 3 as default KDE scanning application.
Skanlite is based on libksane, an interface provided by KDE for SANE libraries to control flatbed scanners. It also works with networked scanners.
SwingSane
SwingSane is a cross-platform, Java front end for SANE, written and maintained by Roland Quast. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. The source code for the project can also be adapted for use with an existing Swing application.
XSane
XSane is a graphical front end for SANE written by Oliver Rauch. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, UNIX, and OS/2 and is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Windows version only allows a Windows computer to access a scanner that is attached to a Unix, OS/2 or Mac OS X network computer, but not generally to the local Windows computer. Only the "complete" sane-back-ends versions will possibly work with some scanner models connected locally.
See also
Image and Scanner Interface Specification (ISIS) – Open industry standard interface.
TWAIN – Software API for local drivers that are bundled with control GUI.
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) – Proprietary API from Microsoft.
References
External links
SANE back ends list
Device drivers
Image scanning |
57757047 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGTV | IGTV | IGTV, short for Instagram TV, is a standalone video application by Instagram for Android and iOS smartphones. It allows for longer videos compared to Instagram feeds. While IGTV is available as a stand-alone app, basic functionality is also available within the Instagram app and website.
The service was launched and introduced by former Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom in a live event in San Francisco on June 20, 2018, featuring creators such as Lele Pons.
Service
IGTV requires users to login with an Instagram account. Mobile devices allow uploads of up to 15 minutes in length with a file size of up to 650 MB, while desktop web browsers allow uploads of up to 60 minutes in length with a file size of up to 3.6 GB. The app auto-plays videos as soon as it is launched, which Kevin Systrom contrasted to video hosts where one must first locate a video.
Instagram accounts with an IGTV channel receive an IGTV tab on their profile page. Additionally, uploads on IGTV can be mirrored to a linked Facebook page.
In May 2019, IGTV gained the ability to upload landscape videos.
References
2018 software
2018 introductions
2018 establishments in California
IOS software
Mobile software
Proprietary cross-platform software
Social software
Video software
Instagram
Vertical video |
35195573 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapsoftware | Slapsoftware | Slap Software, (Software Livre da Administração Processual, or Free Software of the Procedural Management), is a Brazilian open source system. It was developed to be used in the automation of judicial, administrative and legislative procedures. It is registered in National Industrial Property Institute (INPI). The applications deal with systems with features of research, control, follow-up and the storing of data, including judicial automation, digital procedure, electronic process of law, or protocol.
Purpose
Slap Software was created mainly to reduce government spending by the reuse of modules in different parts of government.
It was intended to eliminate the institutional waste that comes reimplementing existing functionality. Another purpose was to help improve best practices in the interdisciplinary area between law and information technology.
Concepts
Modules were tasked with meeting the requirements of multiple applications in judicial, administrative and legislative domains in both civil and criminal),eareas, across jurisdictions, departments and special courts.
Modularization and reuse are fundamental concepts along with object-orientation, component-orientation and data independence.
Modules
The Slap Software talks about formal elements, such as a case would: example applications, documentations UML and handbooks directed to all the spectrum of its public.
Community
The software is able to interact with media, with institutions, social networks and other tools.
History
Slapsoftware was started in January 2008, and continues to evolve. The project was shown in lectures and studied by interested students, executive and staff members.
See also
Lawsuit
Virtual world
Audiovisual
Electronic process of law in Brazil
References
Bibliography
Almeida Filho, José Carlos Araújo, Processo Eletrônico e Teoria Geral do Processo Eletrônico, Forense, 2007
Clementino, Edilberto Barbosa, Proceso Judicial Eletrônico em Conformidade com a Lei 11.419, de 19/12/2006, Juruá, 2006
Larman, Craig. Utilizando UML e Padrões. 3rd Ed. Bookman, 2007. FOWLER, Martin. UML – Um breve guia para a linguagem padrão de modelagem de objetos. 3rd Ed.
Bookman, 2005. Blaha, Michael; RUMBAUGH, James. Modelagem e Projetos Baseados em Objetos com UML 2. 1st Ed. Campus, 2006.
Meilir, Page Jones. 1st Ed. Makron Books, 2001.
Booch, Grady; Rumbaugh, James; Jacobson, Ivar. UML - Guia do usuário. 2nd Ed. Campus, 2006.
Block, Joshua. Java Efetivo. 3rd Ed. Alta Books, 2008.
Deitel, Harvey M.; Deitel, Paul J. Java: Como Programar. 6th Ed. Prentice-Hall, 2005.
Linden, Peter Van Der. Simplesmente Java 2. 6th Ed. Alta Books, 2005. PRESSMAN, Roger S. Engenharia de Software. 6th Edição. McGraw-Hill, 2006. Sommerville, Ian. Engenharia de Software. 8ª Ed. Pearson Education Do Brasil, 2007.
External links
Official site
Twitter
Forum
Talk group
Source
Free software
Public administration
Legal software companies
Government of Brazil
Government by algorithm |
24463800 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison%20of%20free%20geophysics%20software | Comparison of free geophysics software | This is a list of free and open-source software for geophysical data processing and interpretation. The list is split into broad categories, depending on the intended use of the software and its scope of functions.
Notice that 'free and open-source' requires that the source code is available. Simple being 'free of charge' is not sufficient—see gratis versus libre. The reader interested in freeware (just free of charge) software is referred to the list of freeware geophysics software.
Reflection seismic processing packages
These are full-featured reflection seismology processing packages, with support for modeling, imaging, and inversion. They are relatively low-level and in some cases have their own data formats and involve learning an extensive syntax or meta-language.
Reflection seismic processing utilities
These packages offer some subset of functionality of the full processing packages in the previous section.
Nonreflection seismic processing utilities
Modeling and inversion packages
Visualization, interpretation, analysis packages
Not true free and open-source projects
The following projects are not free and open-source. They have unknown licensing, licenses which place some restriction on use or redistribution, or depend on non-open-source software like MATLAB, and thus do not meet the Open Source Definition from the Open Source Initiative. (For example, the license may rule out use by certain people or for certain purposes, e.g., in a commercial context.) They are included here because they may be of interest for those in an academic environment or access to tools like MATLAB.
Collections
Probably defunct projects
The following projects have seen very little activity for more than a year.
References
Seismology
Geophysics software
Geophysics
Geophysics |
15977395 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telly%20%28home%20entertainment%20server%29 | Telly (home entertainment server) | The Telly home entertainment server is range of computer systems designed to store, manage, and access all forms of digital media in the home. Based on Interact-TV's Linux Media Center software, it provides user managed libraries for music, photos, and all forms of video from recorded television programming to DVDs.
Expandable hard drive configurations accommodate growing libraries of home entertainment content and provide an alternative to Desktop and Laptop PCs for entertainment content. Networked configurations distribute content shared from all units throughout a network and allow recording at each location. Content on Telly systems appears to both Windows and Mac PCs as local networked volumes and can be accessed over the network. The Telly server web site provides management of and access to music, photos, and video.
Telly home entertainment servers use a trackball driven user interface and are offered with full high-definition television (HDTV) outputs, built-in digital video recorder (DVR) capabilities and a variety of other accessories. As a home entertainment server, Telly systems differ from traditional media center systems in that it is designed from inception to be configured and operated from a TV-based menu, and as a true server, permits integrated file sharing and secure volume managed expandable storage.
Key Features
Telly Servers are available in a range of models from small set-top sized to rack-mount systems. Each system contains a Linux OS and motherboard and one or more hard drives. All models may additionally have tuners and CD/DVD burners for both import and archiving owners content.
Video Functionality
Users can watch or save DVDs in a Telly server video library for full resolution, progressive scan DVD playback
Facilities are provided for watching live, delayed or recorded TV, home videos and Internet downloaded video, all of which are stored in the Telly Video Library
Video Library contents can be viewed and sorted by Cover Art Navigation or In-Depth Program Information
Music DVDs (such as recorded concerts) in the Video Library can also be copied as music tracks into the Music Library - this permits mixing tracks from music DVD with tracks from the Music Library.
HD Telly systems upsample the native resolution of recorded TV and regular DVDs from 480i to 720p.
When users stop any playback of any video, a Resume button is provided to allow any networked Telly server to pick up where it left off
Telly home entertainment servers support all common non-DRM video formats including AVI, DivX, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4
Networking allows users to move media between other Telly systems, PCs or portable media players
Video files can be imported to Telly from other PCs on the network
Internet video sources such as YouTube can be played on Telly servers
Music Functionality
Jukebox capabilities play single songs or queue any music collection, genre, artist, or album
Sort the Jukebox looking at traditional lists or album cover art and build collections for playback.
Created playlists of selected music can be played at any time or burn them on a CD
Users can view music animations during playback and interleave music DVD tracks from the Video Library
Users can set the music quality when storing CDs with the built-in CD player including the option of Lossless Audio Encoding (a format that maintains the original CD quality and still creates files that are compressed to save disc space)
Support is provided for drag and drop music collections from PCs and Macs to Telly server Import Music folder in most popular non-DRM formats including MP3, AAC, and Flac
Telly systems provide a built-in Web Server allowing any computer to access the Music Library to manage tracks or edit album details
Telly servers can stream music to any browser
Telly systems support internet radio playout
Photo Functionality
Telly servers scale all photos to fit the connected TV screen and will support full 1080 HDTV resolution for presentation of high quality display of Photo Library contents
Telly Photo Library contents can be browsed on the TV screen as thumbnails or as automatic or manually advanced slide shows with predetermined playback or random order playback
The built-in web site access provides the ability to create, add to, and edit Photo Library contents
Networking Functionality
Telly Servers can be networked to grow as users' digital media libraries grow - most systems provide 1000/100/10 Base Ethernet connectivity and can be outfitted with wireless or power-line networking capability.
Each Telly Server can act as a standalone system to manage and access digital media
Each system provides a set of video and audio outputs to connect directly to a TV (either standard definition or high definition) and audio system
The analog stereo and digital audio outputs can be connected to a TV's audio input or to an audio receiver with surround sound
Built-in network sharing provides for access to or copying digital media between your Windows or Mac and Telly servers using any common web browser and network folder sharing including tools like the My Network Places and Macs using Bonjour
All that entertainment content can be made available to other rooms of the house by adding a TellyVizion Playback Unit to your home network over any Ethernet connection between the Telly Server and the TellyVizion.
Systems can be configured with a central Telly Server with a TellyVizion as discussed above or by adding a second Telly Server providing the following advantages:
Two servers double (or more depending on the Telly Server configuration) the amount of storage for digital media.
Content on each Telly Server can be personalized to exclude shows you don’t want to share with your kids (like The Sopranos) and to exclude shows you don’t care to watch (like The Wiggles), you can keep the content of each server separate by turning off the sharing capability, and content on individual servers can be isolated to prevent accidental deletion
As time passes and tastes change, users can always turn sharing back on for access the content from any Telly Server on the home network
With a large digital media libraries, users can further extend storage by adding a TellyRAID system, providing any amount of storage, plus the added protection of RAID in case a hard disk drive fails - TellyRAID connects to one master Telly Server, which then provides the digital media stored on the TellyRAID to other TellyVizions or other Telly Servers throughout the house
TeleMinder
TellyMinder (Under Development)
The TellyMinder is a small desktop computer designed to fit into any entertainment center and display pre-defined messages on a television screen. TellyMinder has a web-based interface that allows the sender (loved ones, medical professionals, etc.) to enter messages (reminders, detailed instructions or video clips) and then schedule these messages to be displayed at a specified time. Messages can include reminders to take a specific medication at a given time, appointment confirmations, or a simple check-in to see how someone is doing.
Once the message is displayed, the recipient (such as the elderly or shut-ins) can confirm the receipt of the message. If the message receipt is not triggered within a specified timeframe, the sender would receive an e-mail alert to notify them of possible problems so the recipient can be contacted directly.
The TellyMinder will also have a web-cam option so sender can check in on the recipient and get visual feedback on the recipient’s status. Future options include the ability to connect monitoring equipment via TellyMinder’s wireless networking so vital information including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels can be monitored in real time. This would also allow TellyMinder to trigger emergency services if the vital information falls to unsafe levels.
TellyMinder leverages significant intellectual property (IP) rights in the following areas:
User Interface Library that combines broadcast quality graphics, animation and streaming media
Intelligent networked media management system
Enhanced television synchronization implementation over a TCP/IP network
Store and forward streaming of MPEG video over TCP/IP networks
TellyMinder uses a synchronization mechanism based on XML that allows content delivered over the Internet to be coordinated with the display of broadcast television. This dramatically improves the response time to the user, removing the objectionable download delays which can occur when information is requested over the Internet.
Software Architecture
The following are the core components of the TellyMinder software platform:
tmiGui – This layer of software developed for TellyMinder allows for the design of user interfaces that are television and entertainment centric. Building on the technical team’s extensive knowledge of broadcast graphics design, a sophisticated user interface toolkit has been developed.
tmiApplicationManager – This software layer developed for TellyMinder provides the management features required by applications such as where windows should be located and how applications should start and stop.
Networked Media Management – TellyMinder has an integrated small and fast database and a newly designed sophisticated, but low maintenance media management system.
Linux Operating System – The Linux OS is the current operating system that TellyMinder is built upon, although all of the current application programming interfaces (APIs) in TellyMinder have been designed to be ported to alternate operating systems if the market dynamics dictate this is necessary.
History
Corporate Info
Interact-TV, Inc. is a Delaware C Corporation, founded in 2000 by a group of television professionals and was originally headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. Interact-TV, Inc. is currently a public company quoted on the OTC Markets under the symbol ITVI, and headquartered in Delaware.
Interact-TV was formed to develop software products that centralize both the Entertainment and Information experience. Interact-TV products blend Digital Media, Broadband, and Home Networking, then bring it to the end-user through a Television Interface. Interact-TV products focus on the increasing availability of broadband access to the home, and a pervasive demand for higher-value entertainment.
Its initial product, The Telly MC1000 Digital Entertainment Center, began shipping in 2002 as the first fully customizable and expandable digital entertainment system. This was the first integrated system to allow users to access most forms of digital entertainment including broadband Internet, cable and satellite television, digital audio and video entertainment, and digital home networking.
The Telly home entertainment server product line was continually enhanced and includes a complete line of servers, available through a network of dealers. The Interact-TV Telly product line established a prestigious business‑to‑business customer base including a significant partnership in November 2005 with Turner Broadcasting Systems (TBS) for over 500 Telly product units and special software work for Video‑On‑Demand (VOD) trials and services.
In 2009 Interact-TV, Inc. acquired Viscount Records, Inc. and Viscount Media Trust from the Medley family, in a deal structured by investment banker, Stan Medley. Shortly thereafter, Interact-TV, Inc. transferred all of its Telly properties operations (except for the Telly Minder system which was and is still under development) to JDV Solutions Inc., a spinoff of Interact-TV Inc. Since late 2009, Telly Systems (except for the Telly Minder) have been sold and serviced by JDV Solutions.
Since 2010 Interact-TV, Inc. has shifted its focus more to the production side of entertainment with the formation of Pocket Kid Records, and a Web Channel in 2010. Pocket Kid Records has been operating successfully with the band Dead Sara under contract and has had less success with the development of its Web-Channel and Telly Minder properties.
Home Entertainment Server Market Overview
Interact-TV introduced their first Telly server in 2001 and was the first commercially available system designed from the ground up as a general purpose home entertainment server. Built on top of a tuned Linux OS, these servers can run efficiently on energy efficient CPUs. Many models are fanless for near-silent operation in home entertainment environments or even bedrooms.
Windows Media Center Edition is built on top of a productivity centered operating system which is burdened by inefficient layers of legacy user interface. This approach confronts users with configuration and operational requirements ill suited to an entertainment oriented experience. Media Center Edition systems require high performance computing platforms which are usually power hungry and extensively fan cooled.
Apple TV is a solution which utilizes a 'media adapter' approach which places a TV enabled device on the home network to bridge the connection from desktop systems and to provide a conduit for content delivery from their iTunes Store. A similar 'media adapter' approach is also available for Media Center Edition systems from a variety of manufacturers (i.e. Linksys, Logitek, and others). Such adaptations arise primarily from the difficulty of creating small quiet computers for lean-back environments which can run full entertainment software on top of lean-forward productivity oriented operating systems.
Operational Requirements
Telly home entertainment servers require an Internet connection for many features. Telly systems network over Ethernet to other computers and work with most cable set top boxes and both Dish and Direct-TV satellite via a simple infrared interface.
See also
Home theater PC
Media center (disambiguation)
Dreambox
Moxi
References
External links
Interact-TV Inc. web site
Digital television
Digital video recorders
Entertainment companies of the United States
Interactive television
Mass media companies of the United States |
25280031 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comunes%20Collective | Comunes Collective | Comunes is a nonprofit organization aiming to encourage the commons and facilitating grassroots work through free software web tools. Previously known as Ourproject.org, this collective established itself as a legal entity in 2009, forming Comunes. Nowadays it serves as an umbrella organization for several projects related to the Commons.
Philosophy and Values
The objectives of the Communes include providing legal protection to member projects, together with technical infrastructure. The organization claims to be inspired by Software in the Public Interest organization, which provides similar protection to free software projects. Comunes member projects must focus on encouraging the protection or expansion of the Commons. Comunes Manifesto shows a view on the social movements as nodes in a social network, analysing which problems this ecosystem has and proposing Comunes web tools for diminishing them.
Projects
Ourproject.org
Ourproject.org is a web-based collaborative free content repository. It acts as a central location for offering web space and tools for projects of any topic, focusing on free culture and free knowledge. It aims to extend the ideas and methodology of free software to social areas and free culture in general. Thus, it provides multiple web services (hosting, mailing lists, wiki, ftp, forums, etc.) to an online community of social, cultural, artistic, and educational projects as long as they share their contents with Creative Commons licenses (or other free/libre licenses). Active since 2002, Ourproject.org hosts 1,200 projects and its services receive more than 1 million monthly visits.
Kune
Kune is a software platform for federated social networking and collaborative work, focusing on workgroups rather than in individuals. Kune aims to allow the creation of online spaces of collaborative work, where organizations and individuals can build projects online, coordinate common agendas, set up virtual meetings and join organizations with similar interests. It is programmed using GWT, on top of the XMPP protocol and integrating Wave-In-A-Box. Licensed under Affero GPL, it has been under development since 2007 and it launched a beta and production site in April 2012.
Move Commons
Move Commons (MC) is a web tool for initiatives, collectives, and NGOs to declare and make visible their core principles. The idea behind MC follows the same mechanics of Creative Commons tagging cultural works, providing a user-friendly, bottom-up, labelling system for each initiative, with four meaningful icons and some keywords. It aims to boost the visibility and diffusion of such initiatives, and build a network among related initiatives/collectives, allowing mutual discovery. Additionally, newcomers could easily understand the collective approach in their website, or discover collectives matching their field/location/interests with a semantic search. It has been presented in several forums. Nowadays it is in beta version, but there are already a few organizations using their MC badges.
Other projects
Comunes includes other newer projects such as Alerta, the community-driven alert system, Plantaré, the community currency for seed exchange, and others.
Partners
Comunes has developed partnership with several organizations:
GRASIA (Group of Software Agents, Engineering & Applications): Research group of Universidad Complutense de Madrid, it is collaborating with Comunes to offer joint grants to students and provide hardware resources.
American University of Science and Technology (Beirut): offering students the chance to frame their senior project and Master theses within Comunes projects.
The Master of Free Software of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid): offering students the chance to complete their compulsory Master internships in the free software community of Comunes projects.
Medialab-Prado: Serves as a forum to present Comunes initiatives. One of them, Move Commons, is part of their Commons Lab.
IEPALA Foundation: It has hired a programmer for the development of Kune and provides technical resources for an alpha-testing environment.
Xsto.info: Free software cooperative that provides technical infrastructure to Comunes without charge.
See also
Commons
Commons-based peer production
Ourproject
Kune (software)
Software in the Public Interest
References
External links
Comunes website
Free-content websites
Open content projects
Creative Commons-licensed websites
Collaborative projects
Community websites
Internet properties established in 2009
Multilingual websites
Internet-related activism
Web service development tools
Organizations established in 2009
Non-profit organisations based in Spain
Public commons
Non-profit technology
Information technology organizations
Free and open-source software organizations
Web service providers |
507143 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upgrade | Upgrade | Upgrading is the process of replacing a product with a newer version of the same product. In computing and consumer electronics an upgrade is generally a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to bring the system up to date or to improve its characteristics.
Computing and consumer electronics
Examples of common hardware upgrades include installing additional memory (RAM), adding larger hard disks, replacing microprocessor cards or graphics cards, and installing new versions of software. Many other upgrades are possible as well.
Common software upgrades include changing the version of an operating system, of an office suite, of an anti-virus program, or of various other tools.
Common firmware upgrades include the updating of the iPod control menus, the Xbox 360 dashboard, or the non-volatile flash memory that contains the embedded operating system for a consumer electronics device.
Users can often download software and firmware upgrades from the Internet. Often the download is a patch—it does not contain the new version of the software in its entirety, just the changes that need to be made. Software patches usually aim to improve functionality or solve problems with security. Rushed patches can cause more harm than good and are therefore sometimes regarded with skepticism for a short time after release. Patches are generally free.
A software or firmware upgrade can be major or minor and the release version code-number increases accordingly. A major upgrade will change the version number, whereas a minor update will often append a ".01", ".02", ".03", etc. For example, "version 10.03" might designate the third minor upgrade of version 10. In commercial software, the minor upgrades (or updates) are generally free, but the major versions must be purchased.
Companies usually make software upgrades for the following reasons: 1.) to support industry regulatory requirements 2.) to access emerging technologies with new features, and tools 3.) to meet the demands of changing markets 4.) to continue to receive comprehensive product support.
Risks
Although developers usually produce upgrades in order to improve a product, there are risks involved—including the possibility that the upgrade will worsen the product.
Upgrades of hardware involve a risk that new hardware will not be compatible with other pieces of hardware in a system. For example, an upgrade of RAM may not be compatible with existing RAM in a computer. Other hardware components may not be compatible after either an upgrade or downgrade, due to the non-availability of compatible drivers for the hardware with a specific operating system. Conversely, there is the same risk of non-compatibility when software is upgraded or downgraded for previously functioning hardware to no longer function.
Upgrades of software introduce the risk that the new version (or patch) will contain a bug, causing the program to malfunction in some way or not to function at all. For example, in October 2005, a glitch in a software upgrade caused trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to shut down for most of the day. Similar have occurred: from important government systems
to freeware on the internet.
Upgrades can also worsen a product subjectively. A user may prefer an older version even if a newer version functions perfectly as designed. This may happen for a variety of reasons, including the user being already accustomed to the behavior of the old version or because the upgrade removed some features (see iPhone jack removal controversy or OtherOS).
A further risk of software upgrades is that they can brick the device being upgraded, such as if power fails while the upgrade is in the middle of being installed. This is an especially big concern for embedded devices, in which upgrades are typically all-or-nothing (the upgrade is a firmware or filesystem image, which isn't usable if it's only partially written), and which have limited ability to recover from a failed upgrade. Solutions to this generally involve keeping multiple copies of firmware, so that one can be upgraded while the other remains intact as a backup, but there are still holes which can cause this to fail. Tools such as Mender.io, Sysup, SWUpdate, RAUC, and OSTree provide more complete solutions that implement upgrades in a safe atomic way, and reduce or eliminate the need to customize bootloaders and other components. Desktop systems are more likely to use something like snapshots or restore points; these are more efficient as they only require a small fraction of space to store the changes from the old system to the new one, but the lack of a turnkey implementation for embedded systems makes this impractical.
See also
Adaptation kit upgrade
Advanced Packaging Tool
Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card
Source upgrade
Windows Anytime Upgrade
Yellow dog Updater, Modified
References
Computing terminology |
4558674 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitext%20word%20alignment | Bitext word alignment | Bitext word alignment or simply word alignment is the natural language processing task of identifying translation relationships among the words (or more rarely multiword units) in a bitext, resulting in a bipartite graph between the two sides of the bitext, with an arc between two words if and only if they are translations of one another. Word alignment is typically done after sentence alignment has already identified pairs of sentences that are translations of one another.
Bitext word alignment is an important supporting task for most methods of statistical machine translation. The parameters of statistical machine translation models are typically estimated by observing word-aligned bitexts, and conversely automatic word alignment is typically done by choosing that alignment which best fits a statistical machine translation model. Circular application of these two ideas results in an instance of the expectation-maximization algorithm.
This approach to training is an instance of unsupervised learning, in that the system is not given examples of the kind of output desired, but is trying to find values for the unobserved model and alignments which best explain the observed bitext. Recent work has begun to explore supervised methods which rely on presenting the system with a (usually small) number of manually aligned sentences. In addition to the benefit of the additional information provided by supervision, these models are typically also able to more easily take advantage of combining many features of the data, such as context, syntactic structure, part-of-speech, or translation lexicon information, which are difficult to integrate into the generative statistical models traditionally used.
Besides the training of machine translation systems, other applications of word alignment include translation lexicon induction, word sense discovery, word sense disambiguation and the cross-lingual projection of linguistic information.
Training
IBM Models
The IBM models are used in Statistical machine translation to train a translation model and an alignment model. They are an instance of the Expectation–maximization algorithm: in the expectation-step the translation probabilities within each sentence are computed, in the maximization step they are accumulated to global translation probabilities.
Features:
IBM Model 1: lexical alignment probabilities
IBM Model 2: absolute positions
IBM Model 3: fertilities (supports insertions)
IBM Model 4: relative positions
IBM Model 5: fixes deficiencies (ensures that no two words can be aligned to the same position)
HMM
Vogel et. al developed an approach featuring lexical translation probabilities and relative alignment by mapping the problem to a Hidden Markov model. The states and observations represent the source and target words respectively. The transition probabilities model the alignment probabilities. In training the translation and alignment probabilities can be obtained from and in the Forward-backward algorithm.
Software
GIZA++ (free software under GPL)
The most widely used alignment toolkit, implementing the famous IBM models with a variety of improvements
The Berkeley Word Aligner (free software under GPL)
Another widely used aligner implementing alignment by agreement, and discriminative models for alignment
Nile (free software under GPL)
A supervised word aligner that is able to use syntactic information on the source and target side
pialign (free software under the Common Public License)
An aligner that aligns both words and phrases using Bayesian learning and inversion transduction grammars
Natura Alignment Tools (NATools, free software under GPL)
UNL aligner (free software under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License)
Geometric Mapping and Alignment (GMA) (free software under GPL)
Anymalign (free software under GPL)
References
Machine translation |
21832525 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th%20Expeditionary%20Airborne%20Command%20and%20Control%20Squadron | 5th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron | The 5th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron is a provisional squadron of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to Pacific Air Forces to activate or inactivate as needed.
The squadron was formed as the 5th Airborne Command and Control Squadron in 1985 by the consolidation of the 25th Antisubmarine Squadron an Army Air Forces unit that served in the American Theater of World War II and the 25th Special Operations Squadron, a training unit during the Vietnam War. The squadron was not active after the merger of these two units. It was converted to expeditionary status in 2015.
History
World War II
The first predecessor of the squadron was the 25th Antisubmarine Squadron. The squadron was activated in May 1943 at Jacksonville Army Air Field and assigned to the 26th Antisubmarine Wing, which had responsibility for Army Air Forces (AAF) units conducting antisubmarine warfare off the South Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. It conducted antisubmarine patrols and assisted the United States Navy to protect friendly shipping off the southeastern coast of the United States from May through August 1943. However, a month after the squadron was activated, the AAF had agreed to turn over its coastal antisubmarine mission to the Navy, effective in August 1943. The squadron continued to operate its bombers, although Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command became I Bomber Command under First Air Force.
In October 1943, the 25th moved to Clovis Army Air Field, New Mexico, becoming part of Second Air Force, which was responsible for advanced bomber training. At Clovis, the personnel and equipment of the squadron were assigned to other squadrons and the squadron was inactivated.
Vietnam War
The squadron's second predecessor was the 25th Special Operations Squadron, which was activated at Hurlburt Field, Florida on 31 August 1970. The squadron was initially equipped with a variety of special operations aircraft, but lost most of them in 1971 and focused on photographic processing, interpretation, production, and distribution of reconnaissance information until it was inactivated in September 1974.
Consolidation
In 1985 the two squadrons were consolidated as the 5th Airborne Command and Control Squadron, but remained inactive. The squadron was converted to provisional status in 2015 and allotted to Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) to activate or inactivate as needed for expeditionary operations. PACAF has reportedly activated the squadron at Kadena Air Base, equipped with Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS aircraft.
Lineage
25th Antisubmarine Squadron
Constituted as the 25th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) on 20 April 1943
Activated on 1 May 1943
Disbanded on 28 October 1943
Reconstituted on 19 September 1985 and consolidated with the 25th Special Operations Squadron as the 5th Airborne Command and Control Squadron
25th Special Operations Squadron
Constituted as the 25th Special Operations Squadron on 24 August 1970
Activated on 31 August 1970
Redesignated 25 Special Operations Squadron (Reconnaissance Support) on 1 June 1971
Inactivated on 30 September 1974
Consolidated with the 25th Antisubmarine Squadron as the 5th Airborne Command and Control Squadron on 19 September 1985
Consolidated Squadron
Formed as the 5th Airborne Command and Control Squadron by the consolidation of the 25th Antisubmarine Squadron and the 25 Special Operations Squadron on 19 September 1985
Redesignated 5th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron and converted to provisional status on 30 June 2015
Assignments
26th Antisubmarine Wing, 1 May 1943
Second Air Force, 9–28 October 1943.\
1st Special Operations Wing (later 834th Tactical Composite) Wing), 31 August 1970 – 30 September 1974
Pacific Air Forces to activate or inactivate as needed at any time after 30 June 2015
Unknown, after 2015
Stations
Jacksonville Army Air Field, Florida, 1 May 1943
Clovis Army Air Field, New Mexico, 9–28 October 1943
Hurlburt Field, Florida, 31 August 1970 – 30 September 1974
Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, after 2015
Aircraft
Lockheed A-29 Hudson, 1943
North American B-25 Mitchell, 1943
Cessna A-37 Dragonfly, 1970-1971
Fairchild C-123 Provider, 1970-1973
Bell UH-1 Huey, 1970-1971
Helio U-10 Courier, 1970-1971
Sikorsky CH-3, 1973-1974
Northrop Grumman E-8 JSTARS, after 2015
Awards and campaigns
References
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
Air expeditionary squadrons of the United States Air Force
Command and control squadrons of the United States Air Force |
64559575 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van%20Buren%20v.%20United%20States | Van Buren v. United States | Van Buren v. United States (2021) was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and its definition of "exceeds authorized access" in relation to one intentionally accessing a computer system they have authorization to access. In June 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6–3 opinion that one "exceeds authorized access" by accessing off-limit files and other information on a computer system they were otherwise authorized to access. The CFAA's language had long created a circuit split in case law, and the Court's decision narrowed the applicability of CFAA in prosecuting cybersecurity and computer crime.
Background
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a federal law passed in 1986 to strengthen laws around unauthorized access to computer systems. The law was passed partially based on fears from Congress members who saw the 1983 film WarGames. Among its core statutes at is that intentionally accessing a computer system "without authorization or exceeds authorized access" to obtain protected information, financial records, or federal government information is considered a federal crime that can include fines and imprisonment as a penalty.
The exact definition of "exceeds authorized access" is not clear and created a 4–3 circuit split of cases at the Circuit Courts. In the First, Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits, the courts upheld a broad view of the statement, that accessing a computer with authorization but for an improper purpose is a violation of the CFAA. The Second, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits took a more narrow view that a violation only occurs if the authorized user accesses information they were prohibited from accessing.
Because of the case law split, there has been debate on whether the language should be treated narrowly or broadly between cybersecurity researchers and law enforcement among others. For cybersecurity practitioners, a narrow interpretation of "exceeds authorized access" language in §1030(a)(2) would allow them to better conduct work identifying and resolving security problems with computer hardware and software as to make the Internet safer. The vagueness of the statute otherwise puts these job functions at risk. Law enforcement and the U.S. government in general prefer a broader interpretation as this allows them to prosecute those who use hacking to bring down or take advantage of insecure systems under the CFAA. There are additional concerns as the language of CFAA, if broadly interpreted, could apply to commonly-accepted activities at businesses or elsewhere, such as using office computers for browsing the web. Jeffrey L. Fisher, a law professor at Stanford University who represents the petitioner in the present case, states that the law's language is outdated with modern computer usage, and its broad interpretation "[makes] a crime out of ordinary breaches of computer restrictions and terms of service that people likely don’t even know about and if they did would have no reason to think would be a federal crime."
Facts of the case
Police officer Nathan Van Buren, from Cumming, Georgia, was in need of money and asked a man, Andrew Albo, for help. Albo was known to have connections to prostitution in the town and had prior conflicts with the police. Albo reported this request to the local sheriff's office, where the request was passed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI set up a sting operation and instructed Albo to offer Van Buren , but in exchange, to request Van Buren look up a license plate on the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) he had authorized access to, as to see if its registered owner, a stripper, was an undercover officer. Van Buren complied with the request, which led the FBI to arrest him for felony computer fraud under the CFAA §1030(a)(2). Van Buren was found guilty in a jury trial and sentenced to 18 months of prison by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Van Buren appealed the conviction to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, asserting that accessing the GCIC that he had authorized access to but for an improper purpose was not a violation of the "exceeds authorized access" clause of the CFAA. While the Circuit judges had some sympathy for this argument, they chose to rule on precedent from a prior Eleventh Circuit case, United States v. Rodriguez (2010), to uphold Van Buren's conviction.
Supreme Court
Van Buren petitioned to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari in April 2020. The case was argued on November 30, 2020, via telephone due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Court issued its decision on June 3, 2021. In a 6–3 decision, the Court reversed and remanded the lower court ruling. The majority opinion was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. Barrett ruled that for the CFAA, a person violates the "exceeds authorized access" language when they access files or other information that is off-limits to them on a computer system that they otherwise have authorized access to. The majority opinion distinguished this from Van Buren's case, in that the information that he obtained was within the limits of what he could access with his authorization, but was done for improper reasons, and thus he could not be charged under CFAA for this crime. In the opinion Barrett agreed with critics of the law that if they had taken the government's stance that "the 'exceeds authorized access' clause criminalizes every violation of a computer-use policy", "then millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens are criminals."
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the dissenting opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Thomas wrote that many parts of federal law denote portions of law where a person may be given temporary access to property but still places limits on what they may do with that access, such as a valet parking a car, and that the majority had taken a contrived position. Thomas wrote "It is understandable to be uncomfortable with so much conduct being criminalized, but that discomfort does not give us authority to alter statutes."
This case is notable for being the first in which Justice Stephen Breyer assigned the majority opinion. Because the Chief Justice and Justice Thomas both dissented, Breyer, who is the second-most senior Associate Justice, was the most senior justice in the majority and so assigned the opinion. Breyer chose to assign this opinion to Justice Barrett, who is the newest justice.
Reactions
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had filed an amici brief in the case stating that "the CFAA has hindered [the] work [of 'security researchers']" and opined that "the government’s broad interpretation of the CFAA" meant that "standard security research practices... can be highly risky", called the ruling "a victory for all Internet users" and "especially good news for security researchers".
Impact
The following week, on the basis of Van Buren, the Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit's decision in hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn (2019) via order, in which hiQ had prevailed to be able to web scrape data from LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft. The Ninth Circuit had relied on the interpretation of CFAA that as LinkedIn's data was publicly available, Microsoft could not stop hiQ from collecting it even at a massive scale beyond the capabilities of a human. The Supreme Court vacated the ruling and instructed the Ninth Circuit to review the case under the Van Buren decision, which could incorporate web scraping as an improper act under CFAA within the Supreme Court's ruling.
References
External links
Slip opinion
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court
United States computer case law
2021 in United States case law |
56610520 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Miracle%20Season | The Miracle Season | The Miracle Season is a 2018 American sports drama film directed by Sean McNamara and starring Erin Moriarty, Helen Hunt, William Hurt, and Danika Yarosh. The film is based on the true story of the Iowa City West High School volleyball team after the sudden death of the team's heart and leader, Caroline Found, in 2011. It was released in the United States on April 6, 2018. The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $10 million worldwide.
Plot
Caroline "Line" Found is the star volleyball player on the Iowa City West High School Volleyball Team and well-loved by members of the community. With Line as the captain, the Trojans have been undefeated and everyone in the city has high hopes for West to win the championship again after the previous year, especially against their long-time rival, City High. During a party at her house, Line decides to secretly sneak away to visit her mother Ellyn at the hospital, where she is being treated for cancer. That night, Line herself is killed in a moped accident, leaving the entire community in mourning. At Line's wake, Ellyn insists on walking to her daughter's casket to pay her respects; Ellyn dies from cancer days after the wake, leaving her husband and Line's father Ernie grieving with the loss of both his wife and his daughter.
Despite the school and community still in shock over Line's death, the Trojans' coach, Kathy "Brez" Bresnahan continues to hold volleyball practice. She directly approaches Line's best friend, Kelley Fliehler, encouraging her to return because Line would have wanted them to continue. Kelley refuses, but Brez persists until Kelley agrees. After it is revealed that the Trojans lost their most recent match due to forfeit, Kelley encourages the entire school that they need to continue for Line's sake.
West High struggles in practice and loses their first game badly, still discouraged from Line's death. Brez begins to run the team through grueling drills until a teammate can serve to spot one. When Kelley succeeds, Brez names her the new captain of the team. As the weeks go by, the team begins to win and becomes motivated to win the state championship for Line. Brez informs the team they need to win all of their remaining games to be eligible for the state championship. The Trojans win their next fourteen games, giving them a chance to win the championship.
Before the state tournament begins, Kelley finds a gift from Line's father, Ernie, that encourages her not to play for Line or to win for her, but to "Live Like Line." At West High, Kelley and boyfriend Alex paint the windows to read "Live Like Line". T-Shirts with the catchphrase are given out to players, staff, and fans. At the state tournament, the Trojans win the quarter-final game with ease, but struggle to win their semi-final game. They move on to the championship, and have to go up against City High, who are heavily favored to win. Before the game, Brez gives a tribute to Line, deciding not to have a moment of silence, but encourages the crowd to meet someone new, as Line always was kind to everyone. City takes the lead early in the match, but West manages to tie the score and force the fifth and final game. The Trojans go on to win and capture the state championship again. As the crowd cheers, "Sweet Caroline" plays in honor of Line and Kelley holds Line's picture up high and proud.
During the closing credits, images, videos, and footage show the real life Caroline Found and her family, Kelley Fliehler, Kathy Bresnahan, and the Iowa West High volleyball team. On-screen subtitles reveal that Caroline Found's death inspired the Iowa West High volleyball team repeat their win for the 2011 Iowa State Championship. The Founds climbed Mount Monadnock for a year. Over 4,000 students from across Iowa attended Line's funeral. Kathy "Brez" Bresnahan was voted National Coach of the Year for 2011, and would later retire from coaching in 2014; she remains in contact with the 2011 team. Scott Sanders would replace Bresnahan as the West High volleyball team's coach, while Kelley Fliehler went on to study microbiology at Iowa State University. Ernie was given a white rose at senior night to honor Caroline Found. A bench in downtown Iowa City was painted in honor of Line and her mother Ellyn, and is the only bench in town that has ever been painted over.
Cast
Erin Moriarty as Kelley Fliehler, Caroline's best friend who becomes the new volleyball team captain after Caroline dies
Danika Yarosh as Caroline "Line" Found, star player of the Iowa City West High School volleyball team who dies in a moped accident
Helen Hunt as Kathy Bresnahan, volleyball coach
Jillian Fargey as Ellyn Found, Caroline's sick mother
William Hurt as Dr. Ernie Found, Caroline's father and Ellyn's husband
Garry Chalk as Principal Shaw
Tiera Skovbye as Brie Tipton, West High Volleyball Player #8
Nesta Cooper as Lizzy Ackerman, West High Volleyball Player #18
Lillian Douchet-Roche as Taylor Mitchell, West High Volleyball Player #14
Natalie Sharp as Mackenzie "Mack" Davidson, West High Volleyball Player #11
Rebecca Merastry as Volleyball Player #1 for West High
Emma Barlow as Volleyball Player #17 for West High
Burkely Duffield as Alex, Kelley's boyfriend
Rebecca Staab as Bethany, Kelley's mother
Ava Grace Cooper as Little Kelley
Bailey Skodje as Little Line
The movie also had real-life former volleyball players as extras. Vanessa Wiebe and Cassandra Bagnell, who previously played for Thompson Rivers University and Dalhousie University respectively portray Twin Towers 1 & 2, City High School volleyball teammates who rival West High. Jessica Bailey, who was a volleyball player for Trinity Western University, portrays herself as one of the West High Volleyball players. Alexis Jonker, Katelyn Devaney, and Rowyn Neufeld, also from Trinity Western University portray other volleyball players from rival schools West High faces. Olivia Cesaretti and Brianna Solberg of Douglas College, Taeya Page of University of Calgary, as well as Samantha Patko of University of British Columbia portray additional West High Volleyball players. The film's director, Sean McNamara, makes a cameo as a Caroline Found fan, while Helen Hunt's real-life daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, portrays a high schooler named Ruby.
Production
The film was originally titled Live Like Line. William Hurt and Helen Hunt joined the film in June 2016; Hunt and McNamara previously worked together on the similarly-themed film Soul Surfer. Filming took place in Vancouver, Canada.
Release
The Miracle Season premiered at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City, where the film is set, on March 18, 2018. It was released by LD Entertainment on April 6, 2018.
Home media
The film was released on DVD and Digital by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on July 31, 2018.
Box office
In the United States and Canada, The Miracle Season was released alongside A Quiet Place, Chappaquiddick and Blockers, and as projected to gross around $3 million from 1,707 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $4.1 million, finishing 11th; 74% of its audience was female.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "The Miracle Season has a worthy real-life story to tell, but one-dimensional characters and aggressively maudlin storytelling undercut any emotional uplift." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
References
External links
2018 films
American films
American teen films
Films about women's sports
English-language films
Drama films based on actual events
Films directed by Sean McNamara
Films set in 2011
Films set in Iowa
Films shot in Vancouver
Volleyball films
Films scored by Roque Baños
LD Entertainment films |
20036 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasyntactic%20variable | Metasyntactic variable | A metasyntactic variable is a specific word or set of words identified as a placeholder in computer science and specifically computer programming. These words are commonly found in source code and are intended to be modified or substituted before real-world usage. The words foo and bar are good examples as they are used in over 330 Internet Engineering Task Force Requests for Comments, the documents which define foundational internet technologies like HTTP (web), TCP/IP, and email protocols.
By mathematical analogy, a metasyntactic variable is a word that is a variable for other words, just as in algebra letters are used as variables for numbers.
Metasyntactic variables are used to name entities such as variables, functions, and commands whose exact identity is unimportant and serve only to demonstrate a concept, which is useful for teaching programming.
Common metasyntactic variables
Due to English being the foundation-language, or lingua franca, of most computer programming languages, these variables are commonly seen even in programs and examples of programs written for other spoken-language audiences.
The typical names may depend however on the subculture that has developed around a given programming language.
General usage
Metasyntactic variables used commonly across all programming languages include foobar, foo, bar, baz, , , , , , , , , , , and thud; several of these words are references to the game Colossal Cave Adventure.
A complete reference can be found in a MIT Press book titled The Hacker's Dictionary.
Japanese
In Japanese, the words (ほげ) and (ぴよ) are commonly used, with other common words and variants being (ふが), (ほげら), and (ほげほげ). Note that -ra is a pluralizing ending in Japanese, and reduplication is also used for pluralizing. The origin of as a metasyntactic variable is not known, but it is believed to date to the early 1980s.
French
In France, the word toto is widely used, with variants tata, titi, tutu as related placeholders. One commonly-raised source for the use of toto is a reference to the stock character used to tell jokes with Tête à Toto.
Usage examples
C
In the following example the function name foo and the variable name bar are both metasyntactic variables. Lines beginning with // are comments.
// The function named foo
int foo(void)
{
// Declare the variable bar and set the value to 1
int bar = 1;
return bar;
}
C++
Function prototypes with examples of different argument passing mechanisms:
void Foo(Fruit bar);
void Foo(Fruit* bar);
void Foo(const Fruit& bar);
Example showing the function overloading capabilities of the C++ language
void Foo(int bar);
void Foo(int bar, int baz);
void Foo(int bar, int baz, int qux);
Python
Spam, ham, and eggs are the principal metasyntactic variables used in the Python programming language. This is a reference to the famous comedy sketch, "Spam", by Monty Python, the eponym of the language.
In the following example spam, ham, and eggs are metasyntactic variables and lines beginning with # are comments.
# Define a function named spam
def spam():
# Define the variable ham
ham = "Hello World!"
# Define the variable eggs
eggs = 1
return
IETF Requests for Comments
Both the IETF RFCs and computer programming languages are rendered in plain text, making it necessary to distinguish metasyntactic variables by a naming convention, since it would not be obvious from context.
Here is an example from the official IETF document explaining the e-mail protocols (from RFC 772 - cited in RFC 3092):
All is well; now the recipients can be specified.
S: MRCP TO:<Foo@Y> <CRLF>
R: 200 OK
S: MRCP TO:<Raboof@Y> <CRLF>
R: 553 No such user here
S: MRCP TO:<bar@Y> <CRLF>
R: 200 OK
S: MRCP TO:<@Y,@X,fubar@Z> <CRLF>
R: 200 OK
Note that the failure of "Raboof" has no effect on the storage of
mail for "Foo", "bar" or the mail to be forwarded to "fubar@Z"
through host "X".
(The documentation for texinfo emphasizes the distinction between metavariables and mere variables used in a programming language being documented in some texinfo file as: "Use the @var command to indicate metasyntactic variables. A metasyntactic variable is something that stands for another piece of text. For example, you should use a metasyntactic variable in the documentation of a function to describe the arguments that are passed to that function. Do not use @var for the names of particular variables in programming languages. These are specific names from a program, so @code is correct for them.")
Another point reflected in the above example is the convention that a metavariable is to be uniformly substituted with the same instance in all its appearances in a given schema. This is in contrast with nonterminal symbols in formal grammars where the nonterminals on the right of a production can be substituted by different instances.
Example data
SQL
It is common to use the name ACME in example SQL Databases and as placeholder company-name for the purpose of teaching. The term 'ACME Database' is commonly used to mean a training or example-only set of database data used solely for training or testing.
ACME is also commonly used in documentation which shows SQL usage examples, a common practice with in many educational texts as well as technical documentation from companies such as Microsoft and Oracle.
See also
Metavariable (logic)
xyzzy
Alice and Bob
John Doe
Fnord
Free variables and bound variables
Gadget
Lorem ipsum
Nonce word
Placeholder name
Widget
Smurf
References
External links
Definition of metasyntactic variable, with examples.
Examples of metasyntactic variables used in Commonwealth Hackish, such as wombat.
Variable "foo" and Other Programming Oddities
Placeholder names
Metalogic
Variable (computer science)
Syntax (logic) |
7088 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20cryptographers | List of cryptographers | This is a list of cryptographers. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries.
Pre twentieth century
Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi: wrote a (now lost) book on cryptography titled the "Book of Cryptographic Messages".
Al-Kindi, 9th century Arabic polymath and originator of frequency analysis.
Athanasius Kircher, attempts to decipher crypted messages
Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, wrote a standard book on cryptography
Ibn Wahshiyya: published several cipher alphabets that were used to encrypt magic formulas.
John Dee, wrote an occult book, which in fact was a cover for crypted text
Ibn 'Adlan: 13th-century cryptographer who made important contributions on the sample size of the frequency analysis.
Duke of Mantua Francesco I Gonzaga is the one who used the earliest example of homophonic Substitution cipher in early 1400s.
Ibn al-Durayhim: gave detailed descriptions of eight cipher systems that discussed substitution ciphers, leading to the earliest suggestion of a "tableau" of the kind that two centuries later became known as the "Vigenère table".
Ahmad al-Qalqashandi: Author of Subh al-a 'sha, a fourteen volume encyclopedia in Arabic, which included a section on cryptology. The list of ciphers in this work included both substitution and transposition, and for the first time, a cipher with multiple substitutions for each plaintext letter.
Charles Babbage, UK, 19th century mathematician who, about the time of the Crimean War, secretly developed an effective attack against polyalphabetic substitution ciphers.
Leone Battista Alberti, polymath/universal genius, inventor of polyalphabetic substitution (more specifically, the Alberti cipher), and what may have been the first mechanical encryption aid.
Giovanni Battista della Porta, author of a seminal work on cryptanalysis.
Étienne Bazeries, French, military, considered one of the greatest natural cryptanalysts. Best known for developing the "Bazeries Cylinder" and his influential 1901 text Les Chiffres secrets dévoilés ("Secret ciphers unveiled").
Giovan Battista Bellaso, Italian cryptologist
Giovanni Fontana (engineer), wrote two encrypted books
Hildegard of Bingen used her own alphabet to write letters.
Julius Caesar, Roman general/politician, has the Caesar cipher named after him, and a lost work on cryptography by Probus (probably Valerius Probus) is claimed to have covered his use of military cryptography in some detail. It is likely that he did not invent the cipher named after him, as other substitution ciphers were in use well before his time.
Friedrich Kasiski, author of the first published attack on the Vigenère cipher, now known as the Kasiski test.
Auguste Kerckhoffs, known for contributing cipher design principles.
Edgar Allan Poe, author of the book, A Few Words on Secret Writing, an essay on cryptanalysis, and The Gold Bug, a short story featuring the use of letter frequencies in the solution of a cryptogram.
Johannes Trithemius, mystic and first to describe tableaux (tables) for use in polyalphabetic substitution. Wrote an early work on steganography and cryptography generally.
Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, deciphered Spanish messages for William the Silent during the Dutch revolt against the Spanish.
John Wallis codebreaker for Cromwell and Charles II
Sir Charles Wheatstone, inventor of the so-called Playfair cipher and general polymath.
World War I and World War II wartime cryptographers
Lambros D. Callimahos, US, NSA, worked with William F. Friedman, taught NSA cryptanalysts.
Ann Z. Caracristi, US, SIS, solved Japanese Army codes in WW II, later became Deputy Director of National Security Agency.
Alec Naylor Dakin, UK, Hut 4, Bletchley park during World War II.
Ludomir Danilewicz, Poland, Biuro Szyfrow, helped to construct the Enigma machine copies to break the ciphers.
Alastair Denniston, UK, director of GC&CS at Bletchley Park from 1919 to 1942.
Agnes Meyer Driscoll, US, broke several Japanese ciphers.
Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein, US, SIS, noticed the pattern that led to breaking Purple.
Elizebeth Smith Friedman, US, Coast Guard and US Treasury Department cryptographer, co-invented modern cryptography.
William F. Friedman, US, SIS, introduced statistical methods into cryptography.
Cecilia Elspeth Giles, UK, Bletchley Park
Jack Good UK, GC&CS, Bletchley Park worked with Alan Turing on the statistical approach to cryptanalysis.
Nigel de Grey, UK, Room 40, played an important role in the decryption of the Zimmermann Telegram during World War I.
Dillwyn Knox, UK, Room 40 and GC&CS, broke commercial Enigma cipher as used by the Abwehr (German military intelligence).
Solomon Kullback US, SIS, helped break the Japanese Red cipher, later Chief Scientist at the National Security Agency.
Frank W. Lewis US, worked with William F. Friedman, puzzle master
William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, U.S. National Security Agency cryptologists who defected to the Soviet Union in 1960
Leo Marks UK, SOE cryptography director, author and playwright.
Donald Michie UK, GC&CS, Bletchley Park worked on Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher and the Colossus computer.
Max Newman, UK, GC&CS, Bletchley Park headed the section that developed the Colossus computer for Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher.
Georges Painvin French, broke the ADFGVX cipher during the First World War.
Marian Rejewski, Poland, Biuro Szyfrów, a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who, in 1932, solved the Enigma machine with plugboard, the main cipher device then in use by Germany.
John Joseph Rochefort US, made major contributions to the break into JN-25 after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Leo Rosen US, SIS, deduced that the Japanese Purple machine was built with stepping switches.
Frank Rowlett US, SIS, leader of the team that broke Purple.
Jerzy Różycki, Poland, Biuro Szyfrów, helped break German Enigma ciphers.
Luigi Sacco, Italy, Italian General and author of the Manual of Cryptography.
Laurance Safford US, chief cryptographer for the US Navy for 2 decades+, including World War II.
Abraham Sinkov US, SIS.
John Tiltman UK, Brigadier, Room 40, GC&CS, Bletchley Park, GCHQ, NSA. Extraordinary length and range of cryptographic service
Alan Mathison Turing UK, GC&CS, Bletchley Park where he was chief cryptographer, inventor of the Bombe that was used in decrypting Enigma, mathematician, logician, and renowned pioneer of Computer Science.
William Thomas Tutte UK, GC&CS, Bletchley Park, with John Tiltman, broke Lorenz SZ 40/42 encryption machine (codenamed Tunny) leading to the development of the Colossus computer.
William Stone Weedon, US,
Gordon Welchman UK, GC&CS, Bletchley Park where he was head of Hut Six (German Army and Air Force Enigma cipher. decryption), made an important contribution to the design of the Bombe.
Herbert Yardley US, MI8 (US), author "The American Black Chamber", worked in China as a cryptographer and briefly in Canada.
Henryk Zygalski, Poland, Biuro Szyfrów, helped break German Enigma ciphers.
Karl Stein German, Head of the Division IVa (security of own processes) at Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. Discoverer of Stein manifold.
Gisbert Hasenjaeger German, Tester of the Enigma. Discovered new proof of the completeness theorem of Kurt Gödel for predicate logic.
Heinrich Scholz German, Worked in Division IVa at OKW. Logician and pen friend of Alan Turning.
Gottfried Köthe German, Cryptanalyst at OKW. Mathematician created theory of topological vector spaces.
Ernst Witt German, Mathematician at OKW. Mathematical Discoveries Named After Ernst Witt.
Helmut Grunsky German, worked in complex analysis and geometric function theory. He introduced Grunsky's theorem and the Grunsky inequalities.
Georg Hamel.
Oswald Teichmüller German, Temporarily employed at OKW as cryptanalyst. Introduced quasiconformal mappings and differential geometric methods into complex analysis. Described by Friedrich L. Bauer as an extreme Nazi and a true genius.
Hans Rohrbach German, Mathematician at AA/Pers Z, the German department of state, civilian diplomatic cryptological agency.
Wolfgang Franz German, Mathematician who worked at OKW. Later significant discoveries in Topology.
Werner Weber German, Mathematician at OKW.
Georg Aumann German, Mathematician at OKW. His doctoral student was Friedrich L. Bauer.
Otto Leiberich German, Mathematician who worked as a linguist at the Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht.
Alexander Aigner German, Mathematician who worked at OKW.
Erich Hüttenhain German, Chief cryptanalyst of and led Chi IV (section 4) of the Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. A German mathematician and cryptanalyst who tested a number of German cipher machines and found them to be breakable.
Wilhelm Fenner German, Chief Cryptologist and Director of Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht.
Walther Fricke German, Worked alongside Dr Erich Hüttenhain at Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. Mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and linguist.
Fritz Menzer German. Inventor of SG39 and SG41.
Other pre-computer
Rosario Candela, US, Architect and notable amateur cryptologist who authored books and taught classes on the subject to civilians at Hunter College.
Claude Elwood Shannon, US, founder of information theory, proved the one-time pad to be unbreakable.
Modern
See also: Category:Modern cryptographers for a more exhaustive list.
Symmetric-key algorithm inventors
Ross Anderson, UK, University of Cambridge, co-inventor of the Serpent cipher.
Paulo S. L. M. Barreto, Brazilian, University of São Paulo, co-inventor of the Whirlpool hash function.
George Blakley, US, independent inventor of secret sharing.
Eli Biham, Israel, co-inventor of the Serpent cipher.
Don Coppersmith, co-inventor of DES and MARS ciphers.
Joan Daemen, Belgian, co-developer of Rijndael which became the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and Keccak which became SHA-3.
Horst Feistel, German, IBM, namesake of Feistel networks and Lucifer cipher.
Lars Knudsen, Denmark, co-inventor of the Serpent cipher.
Ralph Merkle, US, inventor of Merkle trees.
Bart Preneel, Belgian, co-inventor of RIPEMD-160.
Vincent Rijmen, Belgian, co-developer of Rijndael which became the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Ronald L. Rivest, US, MIT, inventor of RC cipher series and MD algorithm series.
Bruce Schneier, US, inventor of Blowfish and co-inventor of Twofish and Threefish.
Xuejia Lai, CH, co-inventor of International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA).
Adi Shamir, Israel, Weizmann Institute, inventor of secret sharing.
Asymmetric-key algorithm inventors
Leonard Adleman, US, USC, the 'A' in RSA.
David Chaum, US, inventor of blind signatures.
Clifford Cocks, UK GCHQ first inventor of RSA, a fact that remained secret until 1997 and so was unknown to Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman.
Whitfield Diffie, US, (public) co-inventor of the Diffie-Hellman key-exchange protocol.
Taher Elgamal, US (born Egyptian), inventor of the Elgamal discrete log cryptosystem.
Shafi Goldwasser, US and Israel, MIT and Weizmann Institute, co-discoverer of zero-knowledge proofs, and of Semantic security.
Martin Hellman, US, (public) co-inventor of the Diffie-Hellman key-exchange protocol.
Neal Koblitz, independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography.
Alfred Menezes, co-inventor of MQV, an elliptic curve technique.
Silvio Micali, US (born Italian), MIT, co-discoverer of zero-knowledge proofs, and of Semantic security.
Victor Miller, independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography.
David Naccache, inventor of the Naccache–Stern cryptosystem and of the Naccache–Stern knapsack cryptosystem.
Moni Naor, co-inventor the Naor-Yung encryption paradigm for CCA security.
Pascal Paillier, inventor of Paillier encryption.
Michael O. Rabin, Israel, inventor of Rabin encryption.
Ronald L. Rivest, US, MIT, the 'R' in RSA.
Adi Shamir, Israel, Weizmann Institute, the 'S' in RSA.
Moti Yung, co-inventor the Naor-Yung encryption paradigm for CCA security, of Threshold cryptosystems, and Proactive Cryptosystems.
Cryptanalysts
Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist best known for her work as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Ross Anderson, UK.
Eli Biham, Israel, co-discoverer of differential cryptanalysis and Related-key attack.
Matt Blaze, US.
Dan Boneh, US, Stanford University.
Niels Ferguson, Netherlands, co-inventor of Twofish and Fortuna.
Ian Goldberg, Canada, University of Waterloo.
Lars Knudsen, Denmark, DTU, discovered integral cryptanalysis.
Paul Kocher, US, discovered differential power analysis.
Mitsuru Matsui, Japan, discoverer of linear cryptanalysis.
David Wagner, US, UC Berkeley, co-discoverer of the slide and boomerang attacks.
Xiaoyun Wang, the People's Republic of China, known for MD5 and SHA-1 hash function attacks.
Alex Biryukov, University of Luxembourg, known for impossible differential cryptanalysis and slide attack.
Moti Yung, Kleptography.
Algorithmic number theorists
Daniel J. Bernstein, US, developed several popular algorithms, fought US government restrictions in Bernstein v. United States.
Don Coppersmith, US
Dorian M. Goldfeld, US. Along with Michael Anshel and Iris Anshel invented the Anshel–Anshel–Goldfeld key exchange and the Algebraic Eraser. They also helped found Braid Group Cryptography.
Theoreticians
Mihir Bellare, US, UCSD, co-proposer of the Random oracle model.
Dan Boneh, US, Stanford.
Gilles Brassard, Canada, Université de Montréal. Co-inventor of quantum cryptography.
Claude Crépeau, Canada, McGill University.
Oded Goldreich, Israel, Weizmann Institute, author of Foundations of Cryptography.
Shafi Goldwasser, US and Israel.
Silvio Micali, US, MIT.
Rafail Ostrovsky, US, UCLA.
Charles Rackoff, co-discoverer of zero-knowledge proofs.
Oded Regev, inventor of learning with errors.
Phillip Rogaway, US, UC Davis, co-proposer of the Random oracle model.
Amit Sahai, US, UCLA.
Gustavus Simmons, US, Sandia, authentication theory.
Moti Yung, US, Google.
Government cryptographers
Clifford Cocks, UK, GCHQ, secret inventor of the algorithm later known as RSA.
James H. Ellis, UK, GCHQ, secretly proved the possibility of asymmetric encryption.
Lowell Frazer, USA, National Security Agency
Julia Wetzel, USA, National Security Agency
Malcolm Williamson, UK, GCHQ, secret inventor of the protocol later known as the Diffie–Hellman key exchange.
Cryptographer businesspeople
Bruce Schneier, US, CTO and founder of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc. and cryptography author.
Scott Vanstone, Canada, founder of Certicom and elliptic curve cryptography proponent.
See also
Cryptography
References
External links
List of cryptographers' home pages
Cryptographers
Cryptographers |
42611076 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPages | EPages | ePages is an e-commerce solution that allows merchants to create and run online shops in the cloud. The number of shops based on ePages is currently 140,000 worldwide.
ePages software is regularly updated due to its Software-as-a-Service model. An investor in the company is United Internet, with a 25% stake. ePages focuses upon distributing its products mainly through hosting providers, such as 1&1 Internet, Strato AG or Webfusion's brands Host Europe and 123-reg. Additional sales partners include logistics, telecoms, and yellow pages companies. The company collaborates with 80+ technology partners including online marketplaces, payment and logistics companies, and ERP vendors. ePages is headquartered in Hamburg, with additional offices in London, Barcelona, New York City and Jena.
History
The name ePages was used for the first time for software in 1997 to market "Intershop ePages". In 2002, the product line then called Intershop 4 was taken over by ePages GmbH and renamed to ePages.
Features
Depending on the ePages product (Base, Flex, Enterprise, Multistore) and packages offered by hosting providers, merchants can sell up to an unlimited number of items. Users can offer their products and services in 15 languages and with all currencies. With ePages, merchants can use web marketing tools; e.g. newsletters, coupons or social media plug-ins for social commerce.
ePages has developed and optimised the shop content's display on mobile devices and added a filter search feature. Further to this, major online market places such as eBay and Amazon, search engines like Google, payment providers such as PayPal and Enterprise resource planning systems such as SAP Business One and Sage Office Line 24 are integrated into the software.
See also
Comparison of shopping cart software
References
Web applications
Software companies of Germany
Companies based in Hamburg |
51370140 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H/ZKJ | H/ZKJ | H/ZKJ series and its derivative H/ZKT series naval systems are Chinese combat data /management systems (CDS/CMS) installed onboard Chinese surface combatants of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and they are usually referred as ZKJ and ZKT for short. The designation is an abbreviation of Pinyin: H for Haijun (海军, meaning naval in Chinese), Z for Zhihui (指挥, meaning command in Chinese), and K for Kongzhi (控制, meaning control in Chinese), J for Jian (舰, meaning ship in Chinese) and T for Ting (艇, meaning boat in Chinese).
Type 673-I Poseidon-1
The predecessor of all Chinese CDS/CMS is the first CDS in China designated as Type 670-1, which was developed by the 706th Institute under the request of 701st and 713th Institutes, when the latter two were assigned to develop Type 051 destroyer in 1966. Mr. Qin Xue-Chang (秦学昌, born in 1940 in Chongming County) as the general designer, with the CDS designated as Type 670-I shipborne combat information center, and given the name Poseidon-1 (Hai-shen Yi-Hao, 海神1号), with development begun in 1966 and concluded seven years later.
Type 670-I CDS is a centralized system based on specially developed 22-bit, 8K-RAM, MLB minicomputers, which is built on DTL small-scale integrated circuits (IC). The minicomputer is capable of performing two hundred thousand operations per second (ops/sec). The thirty-one centimeter display is fully transistorized and adopts a mixture of analog and digital circuitry. If accepted into service, the system would be designated as ZKJ, short for Zi-dong Kong-zhi Ji-qi (自动控制机器), meaning automatic control machine, because system was intended to automate shipborne weaponry control that was performed manually. However, the political turmoil in China at the time, namely, the Cultural Revolution, had serious hampered the development of the first Chinese CDS. The only prototype built was plagued with reliability problem, and instead of the originally name planned, the system was frequently and candidly referred by the nickname given by the sailors as seasick machine (Yun-chuan-ji, 晕船机) due to its frequent breakdowns, especially in severe sea states. As a result, Type 670-I Poseidon-1 did not enter service after seven years of development. Although Type 670-1 failed to enter production and service, it is nonetheless an important milestone in the development of CDS in China in that it has provided the foundation of CDS framework for similar systems developed later in China.
Type 673-II Poseidon-2/ZKJ-I
In 1970, orders were given to develop a successor of earlier Type 673-I CDS named Poseidon-2, with the same general designer reassigned to the 724th Institute. Type 673-II follows the same design of its predecessor but with a new computer developed by the 709th Institute. The 32K-RAM, 32-bit new computer is designated as Type 911, and based on small-scale TTL IC, it is capable of performing half a million ops/sec. Type 671-II can automatically provide fire solution channels for Type 342 and Type 343 radars in real time. The one meter by one meter display of Type 670-II CDS is much larger than that of its predecessor.
The political turmoil once again severely hampered the development of Type 673-II CDS, it was not until in November 1979, three years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, when the system first begun its trials on land, utilizing Type 381 passive phased array radar. In April 1980, the system was installed onboard Type 051 destroyer No. 105 in Dalian for sea trials, which were conducted in July and August the same year, utilizing Type 354 surface search radar. In October 1983, the system was removed from Destroyer No. 105 and installed onboard another Type 051 destroyer, No. 132 in Shanghai for further sea trials in Zhoushan, which was completed in twenty days in December 1983, utilizing Type 354 and Type 342 fire control radar. Type 673-II CDS is capable of handling a total of seventeen batches of targets.
When Type 673-II was accepted into service after thirteen years of development, it received PLAN designation H/ZKJ-I, and the original name of automatic control machine given in the Cultural Revolution was changed to a much more accurate description of Naval / Command, Control, Shipborne (H/ZKJ: Haijun / Zhihui-Kongzhi-Jianzai, 海军/指挥-控制-舰载), though the Pinyin abbreviation remains the same. Type 673-II/ZKJ-I was used on early models of Type 051 destroyer No. 132. ZKJ-1 subsequently was upgraded to ZKJ-1A standard, and the major improvement is the replacement of Type 911 computer with more advanced computer by 724th Institute.
Poseidon-3/ZKJ-II
ZKJ-II is frequently but erroneously referred by many as ZKJ-3, but in reality, ZKJ-II is the actual CDS based on Racal Marine Radar CTC-1629 (CTC: Command Tactical Console) combat direction system, which can simultaneously track 20 targets. The general designer of ZKJ-II is Mr. Yan Jun-Xing (严俊星), and the CDS is named as Poseidon-3. Developed by the 724th Research Institute, ZKJ-II is installed on Type 053K Jiangdong class frigates.
Based on the British CTC-1629, one of the characteristics of ZKJ-II is that it is linked to domestic Chinese fire control system (FCS), and one of the most important of these is SIASWFCS, which is the abbreviation of Shipborne Integrated Anti-Submarine Warfare Fire Control System (Chinese: 舰载综合反潜火控系统 Jian-zai Zong-he Fan-qian Huo-kong Xi-tong), the first kind in Chinese service. SIASWFCS links up onboard sensors and ASW weaponry, and once top priority targets are identified, SIASWFCS would be able to simultaneously engage two targets by automatically providing fire solutions for Type 65 ASW mortars, ASW rocket/missile launchers and ASW torpedo tubes. SIASWFCS can provide fire solutions to two different targets with up to two different types of ASW weaponry simultaneously and it (and later models) has been standard equipment onboard Chinese warships since.
Poseidon-4/ZKJ-3
Originally designated as ZKJ-III and named as Poseidon-4, but later re-designated as ZKJ-3, ZKJ-3 is designed to replace minicomputers in earlier designs with microcomputers with multilayered architecture, using Intel 8086 microprocessors. ZKJ-3 CDS has multiple input/output interfaces, and the software can be expanded when needed thanks to its modular design. In comparison to earlier Type 673-II/ZKJ-I CDS, the capability of ZKJ-3 has been expanded. Some of the additional capability includes compatibility with Type 352 targeting radar for anti-ship missiles and Type 681A IFF, and providing info from SJD-5 sonar to antisubmarine depth charge launchers. ZKJ-3 CDS also incorporates tactical software developed by Dalian Naval Academy, which includes two portions, one for threat analysis, and the other for ship maneuvering to assist naval commanders to make tactical decisions.
ZKJ-III was first installed on Type 053H2 Jianghu-III class frigate No. 535 in December 1986, and the 2nd set was subsequently installed on the 2nd ship of the same class No. 536. The 3rd ship of the class No. 527 received an upgraded version ZKJ-IIIA. A further upgraded version designated as ZKJ-IIIB is reported to equip Type 053H1G Jianghu-V class frigates, while ZKJ-IIIC is installed on Type 053H2G Jiangwei-I class frigates and Type 053H3 Jiangwei-II class frigates. Starting with this model, all ZKJ series are renamed following the convention used on the export model for Thailand, with Roman numerals replaced by Arabic numbers.
CCS-3
An export version ZKJ-III designated as CCS-1 (reported to be the abbreviation of Command and Control System 3, from ZKJ-III it was developed from) was installed onboard two Type 53T and two Type 053HT frigates built for Royal Thai Navy. CCS-3 differs from ZKJ-3 mainly in data links: Thai ships were equipped with a data link back to shore headquarters, and after delivery, a US inter-ship data link is also incorporated. The general designer of CCS-3 is Mr. Chen Yongqing (陈永清). The CIC associated with ZKJ-3 was ECIC-1, rumored to be electrical combat information center. The significance of CCS-3 is that it naming practice was adopted by Chinese for later models in the future CDS, with Arabic numbers replaced the Roman numerals.
ZKJ-4
Originally designated as ZKJ-IV and later re-designated as ZKJ-4, it was a subsystem of Type 051G destroyer in Type 051 destroyer upgrade program. Development of ZKJ-4A begun in January 1984 by the 709th Institute using eleven Intel 80/30 microcomputers, and the CDS is built to RS-232 and RS-422 specs/standards. ZJK-4A is capable of tracking and processing sixty batches of targets in fully automatic mode, and tracking eighty batches of targets in manual mode. Land trials begun in November 1986 in Lianyungang, and sea trials were conducted in May 1987, and the system was delivered and installed on Type 051G destroyer No. 165 in 1988. An improved version designated as ZKJ-4AG was installed on the 2nd unit of Type 051G destroyer No. 166.
Contrary to many frequent but erroneous claims, ZKJ-4/4A/4AG is not a Chinese copy of French TAVITAC (Traitement Automatique et VIsualisation TACtique) because the French CDS were not delivered to China after ZKJ-4/4A/4AG series were already completed: on November 23, 1984, China decided to import naval SAM, ASW helicopter and torpedo. From July 10 thru September 26, 1985, a Chinese delegation from Poly Technologies headed by Rear Admiral Zheng Ming (郑明), the head of PLAN Equipment Department evaluated French naval systems developed by Thomson-CSF, including TAVITAC, Crotale SAM, and associated Castor fire control radar. On December 22, 1986, French systems were selected by China and contract was signed in the following month in January 1987 for two sets, which were subsequently delivered in the following year. On August 24, 1988, installation of the first set onboard Type 051 destroyer No. 109 begun, and the 2nd set was also installed on another ship of Type 051 destroyer (rumored to be No. 110). Due to the urgent need, both set of French systems were installed on ships and nothing was left for research and reverse engineering like other foreign systems China imported. Therefore, ZKJ-4/4A/4AG is not a Chinese copy of French TAVITAC.
ZKJ-4B
ZKJ-4B series CDS with modular design is the first Chinese CDS utilizes ruggedized computers, and it is the Chinese equivalent of Italian Alenia IPN-10 combat data system, and borrowed heavily from SADOC 2 (systema dirizione della operazioni di combattimento) CDS, the export version of IPN-10 delivered to China in 1985. The Italian design features such as three-man level display and MIL-STD-1553B spec/standard are adopted for later models. ZKJ-4B incorporates 052 Integrated Command Decision-making System (052综合指挥决策系统), a software named after Type 052 destroyer it was planned to equip, and it is decision making software developed by Dalian Naval Academy. After land trials in 1990 in Lianyungang, ZKJ-4B was shipped to Shanghai and installed onboard Type 052 destroyer No. 112.
Only a single set of ZKJ-4B was completed, and it was followed by ZKJ-4BII, which is installed on board the 2nd Type 052 destroyer No. 113. In addition, ZKJ-4BII CDS is also installed onboard Type 051B destroyer No. 167. During the upgrades of these ships in the early and mid-2010s, ZKJ-4B/4BII series has been replaced by more advanced ZKJ-5 CDS.
ZKJ-5
ZKJ-5 is a CDS developed by the 709th Institute to replace all previous CDS on major surface combatants of PLAN. The general designer of ZKJ-5 was Zhang Zihe (张子鹤), head of the 709th Research Institute of the 7th Academy of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. Other important figures in ZKJ-5 program included program engineers Li Shuyun (李淑云) and Hu Bin (胡彬). Zhang Zihe pioneered the design of incorporating microcomputer/PC to the system, which was almost rejected when first proposed because it was the first attempt in China, but eventually the idea was accepted and proved successful. PCs/microcomputers incorporated in ZKJ-5 combat data system are the intelligence workstations to replace the dumb terminals used on previous systems.
ZKJ-5 is a distributed system with duplex fiber optic Ethernet and video feed, incorporating dozens of software packages and data banks. ZKJ-5 is installed onboard Type 052 destroyers and Type 054A frigates, and as older ships of PLAN receive their upgrade, earlier CDS such as ZKJ-4 series have been replaced by ZKJ-5 CDS. ZKJ-5 CDS is able to receive orders from higher level on the chain of command, and coordinate the battle plan as whole, as well as providing the battle plan of the ship to the high level in the chain of command, which is essential in network centric warfare.
ZKT-1
In addition to ZKJ series CDS, China has also developed ZKT series CDS, which is intended for fast attack crafts such as missile boats, and other lightly armed surface combatants such as patrol ships, light frigates, and amphibious warfare ships. The current series is ZKT-1, which is developed by the 716th Institute. Instead of the three tiered command system of ZKJ series, ZKT series adopts two-tiered command system. ZKT series does share the same characteristics of centralized command and integrated control of ZKJ series.
ZKT-1 is the first model of the ZKT series CDS, with development completed in 1992. ZKT-1 CDS is very flexible thanks to its modular design, and depending on the onboard weaponry, the operator consoles can be adjusted accordingly. ZKT-1 was first used on Type 037II Houjian-class missile boat of PLAN, and it was built to the MIL-STD-1553B standard. ZKT-1A and ZKT-1B CDS are subsequent succeeding models developed from ZKT-1, and in comparison to ZKT-1, the latest models in the series have been upgraded significantly by incorporating tactical software, databanks, and amphibious warfare software and command system, and helicopter control system. Other features includes duplex fiber optic Ethernet and video feed, like that adopted by ZKJ series CDS. ZKT-1B is installed onboard Type 071 amphibious transport dock of PLAN.
ZBJ-1
H/ZBJ is the fleet command system developed by China for its PLAN. The designation is an abbreviation of Pinyin: H for Haijun (海军, meaning naval in Chinese), Z for Zhihui (指挥, meaning command in Chinese), and B for Biandui (编队, meaning fleet formation in Chinese), J for Jian (舰, meaning ship in Chinese). The official H/ZBJ designation is generally abbreviated as ZBJ. Instead of building specialized command ship, PLAN takes a different approach by installing fleet command systems on large principal surface combatants to act as command ship. The first PLAN naval ship with a modern fleet command system installed is its Type 051B destroyer No. 167. In addition to command surface fleet, the ship is also capable of command amphibious warfare. However, the 1990s technology utilized was not satisfactory, because the resulting system was too bulky and too heavy. As a result, subsequent ships of PLAN were not equipped with this first generation Chinese naval fleet command system, and it was not until Type 052C destroyer when PLAN ships begun to be equipped with fleet command systems. The knowledge and experience gained in the development of first generation fleet command system helped China to develop more capable models later.
The first widely used shipborne fleet command system onboard Chinese naval ships is H/ZBJ-1, usually abbreviated as ZBJ-1, which is first installed onboard Type 052C destroyer and subsequent Type 052D destroyer. Based on the original ZBJ-1, a series of fleet command systems were developed, including ZBJ-1A and ZBJ-2. ZBJ-1A is a fleet command system designed to command and control operations of an amphibious fleet/task force, and is reported installed on Type 071 amphibious transport dock. ZBJ-2 is another development of ZBJ-1, which is designed to command and control operations of an aircraft carrier fleet/task force, which is reported installed onboard Type 001 Liaoning class aircraft carrier.
See also
Chinese radars
Naval Weaponry of the People's Liberation Army Navy
Advanced combat direction system
Naval Tactical Data System
Ship Self-Defense System
References
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-aircraft warfare
Military equipment introduced in the 1970s |
2529390 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen%20%28software%29 | Hydrogen (software) | Hydrogen is an open source drum machine created by Alessandro Cominu, an Italian programmer who goes by the pseudonym Comix. Its main goal is to provide professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming.
Hydrogen was originally developed for Linux, and later ported to Mac OS X. Support for Microsoft Windows seemed to have been abandoned, since the last build dated to 2006 for 4 years. However, a Windows port exists since the 0.9.6 version, and it is now in beta stage. The graphical user interface for the application uses Qt library, and all code is released under GPL-2.0-or-later.
Features
These are some of the features of Hydrogen:
Pattern-based sequencer, with unlimited number of patterns and ability to chain patterns into a song.
192 ticks per whole note with individual level per event and variable pattern length.
Unlimited instrument tracks with volume, mute, solo, pan capabilities.
Multi-layer support for instruments (up to 16 samples for each instrument).
Sample Editor, with basic cut and loop functions.
Time-stretch and pitch functions.
Time-line with variable tempo.
Single and stacked pattern mode.
Ability to import/export song files.
Support for LADSPA effects.
Real-time slide control for swing.
Option to slightly randomize velocity, time, pitch and swing functions to give a more "human" playback.
Multiple patterns playing at once.
Various Drumkits available to download (Rock, Jazz, Electric, Percussions...), plus support to create a custom drumkit.
See also
Free audio software
Linux audio software
References
External links
Software drum machines
Free audio editors
Free music software
Digital audio editors for Linux
Free software programmed in C++
Audio editing software that uses Qt |
15159573 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SystemVerilog%20DPI | SystemVerilog DPI | SystemVerilog DPI (Direct Programming Interface) is an interface which can be used to interface SystemVerilog with foreign languages. These foreign languages can be C, C++, SystemC as well as others. DPIs consist of two layers: a SystemVerilog layer and a foreign language layer. Both the layers are isolated from each other. Which programming language is actually used as the foreign language is transparent and irrelevant for the System-Verilog side of this interface. Neither the SystemVerilog compiler nor the foreign language compiler is required to analyze the source code in the other’s language. Different programming languages can be used and supported with the same intact SystemVerilog layer. For now, however, SystemVerilog defines a foreign language layer only for the C programming language.
The motivation for this interface is two-fold. The methodological requirement is that the interface should allow a heterogeneous system to be built (a design or a testbench) in which some components can be written in a language (or more languages) other than SystemVerilog, hereinafter called the foreign language. On the other hand, there is also a practical need for an easy and efficient way to connect existing code, usually written in C or C++, without the knowledge and the overhead of PLI or VPI.
DPI follows the principle of a black box: the specification and the implementation of a component are clearly separated, and the actual implementation is transparent to the rest of the system. Therefore, the actual programming language of the implementation is also transparent, although this standard defines only C linkage semantics. The separation between SystemVerilog code and the foreign language is based on using functions as the natural encapsulation unit in SystemVerilog. By and large, any function can be treated as a black box and implemented either in SystemVerilog or in the foreign language in a transparent way, without changing its calls.
Explanation
Direct Programming Interface (DPI) allows direct inter language function calls between the SystemVerilog and Foreign language. The functions implemented in Foreign language can be called from SystemVerilog and such functions are called Import functions similarly functions implemented in SystemVerilog can be called from Foreign language (C/C++ or System C) such functions are called Export functions. DPIs allow transfer of data between two domains through function arguments and return.
Function import and export
1) Function Import:- A function implemented in Foreign language can be used in SystemVerilog by importing it. A Foreign language function used in SystemVerilog is called Imported function.
Properties of imported function and task
An Imported function shall complete their execution instantly and consume zero simulation time. Imported task can consume time.
Imported function can have input, output, and inout arguments.
The formal input arguments shall not be modified. If such arguments are changed within a function, the changes shall not be visible outside the function.
Imported function shall not assume any initial values of formal output arguments. The initial value of output arguments is undetermined and implementation dependent.
Imported function can access the initial value of a formal inout argument. Changes that the Imported function makes to a formal inout argument shall be visible outside the function.
An Imported function shall not free the memory allocated by SystemVerilog code nor expect SystemVerilog code to free memory allocated by Foreign code or (Foreign Compiler).
A call to an Imported task can result in suspension of the currently executing thread. This occurs when an Imported task calls an Exported task, and the Exported task executes a delay control, event control or wait statement. Thus it is possible for an Imported task to be simultaneously active in multiple execution threads.
An Imported function or task can be equip with special properties called pure or context.
Pure and context tasks and functions
Pure functions
A function whose results solely depends on the value of its input arguments with no side effects is called Pure function.
Properties of pure functions
Only Non-Void functions with no output or input can be called as Pure functions.
Functions specified as Pure shall have no side effects, their results need to depend solely on the values of their input arguments.
A Pure function call can be safely eliminated if its result is not needed or if its results for the same value of input arguments is available for reuse without needing to recalculate.
A Pure function is assumed not to directly or indirectly perform the following:
Perform any file operation.
Read or Write anything in Environment Variable, Shared memory, Sockets etc.
Access any persistent data like Global or Static variable.
An Imported task can never be declared Pure.
Context tasks and functions
An Imported task or function which calls "Exported" tasks or functions or accesses SystemVerilog data objects other than its actual arguments is called Context task or function.
Properties of context tasks and functions
1) A Context Imported task or function can access (read or write) any SystemVerilog data object by calling (PLI/VPI) or by calling Export task or function. Therefore, a call to Context task or function is a barrier for SystemVerilog compiler optimization.
Import declaration
import "DPI-C" function int calc_parity (input int a);
Export declaration
export "DPI-C" my_cfunction = function myfunction;
Calling Unix functions
SystemVerilog code can call Unix functions directly by importing them, with no need for a wrapper.
DPI example
Calling 'C' functions in SystemVerilog
C - code file
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
extern int add() {
int a = 10, b = 20;
a = a + b;
printf("Addition Successful and Result = %d\n", a);
return a;
}
SystemVerilog code file
module tb_dpi;
import "DPI-C" function int add();
import "DPI-C" function int sleep(input int secs);
int j;
initial
begin
$display("Entering in SystemVerilog Initial Block");
#20
j = add();
$display("Value of J = %d", j);
$display("Sleeping for 3 seconds with Unix function");
sleep(3);
$display("Exiting from SystemVerilog Initial Block");
#5 $finish;
end
endmodule
References
SystemVerilog DPI Tutorial from Project VeriPage
Application programming interfaces
Hardware verification languages |
64348855 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlueLeaks | BlueLeaks | BlueLeaks, sometimes referred to by the Twitter hashtag #BlueLeaks, refers to 269 gigabytes of internal U.S. law enforcement data obtained by the hacker collective Anonymous and released on June 19, 2020, by the activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets, which called it the "largest published hack of American law enforcement agencies".
The data — internal intelligence, bulletins, emails, and reports — was produced between August 1996 and June 2020 by more than 200 law enforcement agencies, which provided it to fusion centers. It was obtained through a security breach of Netsential, a web developer that works with fusion centers and law enforcement.
The leaks were released at hunter.ddosecrets.com and announced on the @DDoSecrets Twitter account. The account was banned shortly after for "dissemination of hacked materials" and "information that could have put individuals at risk of real-world harm." Wired reported that Distributed Denial of Secrets attempted to remove sensitive information from the data before publication. National Fusion Center Association (NFCA) officials confirmed the authenticity of the data, according to documents obtained by security journalist Brian Krebs; the organization warned its members that hackers may use the leaked information to target them.
Background
The Blue Leaks data comes largely from the intelligence gathered by fusion centers. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States government sought to improve communication between different levels of law enforcement to better discover and prevent terrorist attacks. They encouraged state and local governments to create fusion centers: physical locations where representatives of different law enforcement agencies share and collectively analyze intelligence before distributing reports back to their respective agencies. Fusion centers have since begun working with private "data brokers" with little public oversight.
Fusion centers have been criticized as privacy-invading, ineffective, and targeted at political groups. In 2012, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that over the 13 months of review, fusion centers did not contribute to the identification or prevention of a terrorist plot, and that of the 386 unclassified fusion center reports it reviewed, three-quarters had no connection to terrorism at all. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security identified a number of privacy-related concerns created by fusion centers. The department noted that the excessive secrecy of fusion centers led to comparisons with COINTELPRO, and that fusion center reports sometimes distribute inaccurate or incomplete information. The 2012 Senate report points to a report issued by an Illinois fusion center in 2011. The report wrongly claimed that Russian hackers were to blame for a broken water pump, and despite the Department of Homeland Security publicly stating the report was false, its Office of Intelligence and Analysis included the claims in its report to Congress.
After the murder of George Floyd and other instances of police violence in 2020, law enforcement in the United States came under renewed scrutiny. In early June, the hacker collective Anonymous announced its intent to expose police misconduct. The collective did high-profile hacks in the 2000s and early 2010s. In 2011, Antisec, a subgroup of Anonymous, released law enforcement information in support of Occupy Wall Street protestors, but the collective had few significant operations within the United States since then.
Findings
The BlueLeaks collection includes internal memos, financial records, and more from over 200 state, local, and federal agencies. More than one million documents were leaked from law enforcement fusion centers. In leaked documents, officers track individual, group, and event pages with protest or anti-law enforcement rhetoric. Some of the documents contain material related to the attitudes of law enforcement and their response to the Black Lives Matter movement, George Floyd protests, and COVID-19 pandemic.
During the George Floyd protests, law enforcement agencies monitored protesters' communications over social media and messaging apps. Reports leaked found that the police were aware of the potential for their surveillance to violate the Constitution. They distributed documents to police filled with rumors and warnings that the protests would become violent, sparking fear among police officers.
The documents also show a much broader trend of surveillance. They show details about the data that police can obtain from social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit and Tumblr, among others. Fusion centers also collect and distribute detailed data from automatic license plate readers.
Surveys from law enforcement training programs reveal that some instructors were prejudiced and unprofessional. Classes taught biased, outdated, and incorrect content. Some contain sexual content unrelated to the class, and there was one report of an instructor admitting to lying in court frequently.
In Maine, legislators took interest in BlueLeaks thanks to details about the Maine Information and Analysis Center, which is under investigation. The leaks showed the fusion center was spying on and keeping records on people who had been legally protesting or had been "suspicious" but committed no crime.
Documents also contain reports about other countries from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of State and other agencies. Officials discussed cyber attacks from Iran and concerns about further attacks in early 2020. Another report discusses possible Chinese espionage at natural gas facilities. Homeland Security also discussed Russian interference with American elections, attempts to hack the 2020 census, and manipulation of social media discussion.
Google's CyberCrime Investigation Group
On August 21, The Guardian revealed, based on the leaked documents, the existence of Google's "CyberCrime Investigation Group" (CIG). The group focused on voluntarily forwarding detailed information of Google, YouTube and Gmail users, among other products, to members of the Northern California Regional Intelligence, a counter-terrorist fusion center, for content threatening violence or otherwise expressing extremist views, often associated with the far right. The company has also been said to report users who appeared to be in mental distress, indicating suicidal thoughts or intent to commit self-harm.
One way Google identified its users in order to report them to law enforcement was by cross-referencing different Gmail accounts that eventually led them to a single Android phone. In some cases the company did not ban the users they reported to the authorities, and some were said to still have accounts on YouTube, Gmail and other services.
Response
Shortly after the leaks were released, on June 23, Twitter permanently banned DDoSecrets's Twitter account for distributing hacked materials. Twitter also censored all links to the DDoSecrets website.
German authorities seized a server used by DDoSecrets at the request of U.S. authorities. The server had hosted the BlueLeaks files, but the documents remained available for download through BitTorrent and other websites.
Reddit banned r/BlueLeaks, a community created to discuss BlueLeaks, claiming they had posted personal information.
There is a federal investigation relating to BlueLeaks. Various Freedom of Information Act requests filed about BlueLeaks and DDoSecrets were rejected due to an ongoing federal investigation. Homeland Security Investigations has questioned at least one person, seeking information about BlueLeaks, DDoSecrets and one of its founders Emma Best.
The editor for The Intercept described BlueLeaks as the law enforcement equivalent to the Pentagon Papers.
See also
Afghan War documents leak
Cyberwarfare
Electronic civil disobedience
Hacktivism - The act of computer hacking for political reasons.
Jeremy Hammond - Hacktivist who also leaked information relating to law enforcement.
Iraq War documents leak
Panama Papers
Paradise Papers
References
Classified documents
George Floyd protests
Law enforcement in the United States
News leaks
United States documents
Anonymous (hacker group)
Data breaches in the United States
Hacking in the 2020s
June 2020 events in the United States |
7442138 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc%20Benioff | Marc Benioff | Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964) is an American internet entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company. On September 2018, Benioff acquired Time.
Early life and education
Benioff was raised in a Jewish family long established in the San Francisco Bay Area. He graduated from Burlingame High School in 1982. Benioff received a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, in 1986.
Marc is a second cousin of showrunner and television writer David Benioff. The two share a great-grandfather, Isaac, but had never met until the 2015 Game of Thrones premiere gala held in San Francisco. He is married to Lynne Benioff and has two children. The family lives in San Francisco, California.
Career
While still in high school, Benioff sold his first application, How to Juggle, for $75. At 15 years old, he founded Liberty Software, creating and selling games such as Flapper for the Atari 8-bit. Epyx published his King Arthur's Heir, The Nightmare, Escape from Vulcan's Isle, and Crypt of the Undead, and by 16, Benioff was earning royalties of $1,500 a month, enough to pay for college.
While at USC, Benioff had internships as an assembly language programmer at the Macintosh division of Apple Computer, where Guy Kawasaki was his first boss. He expected to continue programming after college but USC professors advised Benioff to gain experience in customer-oriented work and he joined Oracle Corporation in a customer-service role after graduating. Benioff worked at Oracle for 13 years in a variety of sales, marketing, and product development roles before founding Salesforce. At 23, he was named Oracle's Rookie of the Year. Three years later he became the youngest person in the company's history to earn promotion to the title of vice president.
Before starting his company, Mata Amritanandamayi, a Hindu guru, and Colin Powell were critical mentors for him.
Benioff founded Salesforce in March 1999 in a rented San Francisco apartment and defined its mission in a marketing statement as "The End of Software." This was a slogan he used frequently to preach about software on the Web, and used as a guerilla marketing tactic against the dominant CD-ROM CRM competitor Siebel at the time. He hired and planted fake protestors and a fake news team, Channel 22, at Siebel's conference in 1999. He has long evangelized software as a service as the model that would replace traditional enterprise software. He is the creator of the term "platform as a service" and has extended Salesforce's reach by allowing customers to build their own applications on the company's architecture or in the Salesforce cloud.
On September 16, 2018, Marc and his wife Lynne bought Time for $190m.
Influence and honors
In 2009, the members of the World Economic Forum named him as one of its Young Global Leaders.
In 2016, Fortune magazine named him one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders for his commitment to equality for all and other social issues as CEO.
He was also named Businessperson of the Year by Fortune readers.
He was named one of the Best CEOs in the World by Barron's.
He received The Economist's Innovation Award.
He served as co-chairman of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee from 2003 to 2005. Benioff is also a member of the World Economic Forum Board of Trustees.
Salesforce has been named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies five years in a row by Forbes Magazine.
Fortune Magazine named Salesforce as the World's Most Admired Company in the software industry four years in a row, and named the company a Best Place to Work eight years in a row.
Benioff received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Southern California on May 16, 2014.
In 2017, Benioff was included in a business leaders' symposium organized by the Trump Administration during German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to the White House.
He was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2019 "for leadership in cloud computing and corporate philanthropy."
Philanthropy
Benioff is a Chairman of Salesforce.com Foundation, a charity established in 2000, and created the 1-1-1 model of integrated corporate philanthropy, by which companies contribute 1 percent of equity, 1 percent of employee hours and 1 percent of product back to the community.
Benioff and his wife, Lynne, have been recognized as top philanthropists by Forbes' America's 50 Top Giver list in 2015 and the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Philanthropy 50 list in 2010, 2014 and 2015.
In June 2010, they announced a $100-million gift to UCSF Children's Hospital.
In 2014, Marc and Lynne Benioff donated another $100 million to UCSF and Oakland Children's Hospital (both now called Benioff Children's Hospitals).
In May 2019, Marc and Lynne Benioff donated $30 million to the Center for Vulnerable Populations for the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative to study the impact of homelessness, housing, and health.
In November 2019, Benioff donated $900,000 to Team Trees.
In October 2020, Marc and Lynne Benioff were named as one of the alliance partners of Prince William's Earthshot Prize to find solutions to environmental issues.
Social activist platforms
Benioff has said that businesses are the greatest platforms for change in the world. He follows the World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab's stakeholder approach to leadership, which says that leaders should serve not only their shareholders but all stakeholders, including customers, employees, partners, communities and the environment, to make the world a better place.
In March 2015, Benioff announced Salesforce would cancel all employee programs and travel in the state of Indiana after the passing of SB 101, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a controversial bill which would allow companies and individuals to choose not to serve LGBT individuals based on religious beliefs. As the largest tech employer in Indiana (following the 2013 acquisition of ExactTarget), Benioff led a global effort of business leaders fighting back against the legislation, ultimately leading to the Indiana State Legislature's passing an amendment to the bill forcing companies and individuals to service LGBT customers.
Benioff led a similar movement in February 2016 against Georgia's HB 757, the First Amendment Defense Act. He announced that Salesforce would reduce investments in Georgia and cancel an annual conference if the bill was passed as-is. A month later, the Governor vetoed the bill.
In April 2015, Benioff announced that he would be reviewing all salaries at Salesforce to ensure men and women were being paid equally for comparable work. On the heels of the salary assessment, Benioff joined President Barack Obama in January 2016 as he celebrated the anniversary of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and renewed his call on Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.
In March 2018, Benioff announced that he would be donating $1 million to March for Our Lives. In the announcement, Benioff wrote, "Motivated to join the many who are passionate about the safety of all kids and I'll give $1 million to March For Our Lives. Together all of us can make children's health and safety our number one priority. Join us and March on March 24th."
In an October 2018 interview with The Guardian, Benioff criticized other technology industry executives for "hoarding" their money and refusing to help homeless people in the San Francisco Bay Area. With reference to a pending bill that would increase gross receipts tax by 0.5%, Benioff stated “This is a critical moment where I think Prop C kind of illuminates who is willing to be a San Franciscan and actually support our local services.”
Politics
Benioff supported Hillary Clinton for President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election. He was included in the ZDNet's 2017 list of "21 other CEOs we'd like to see run for president".
Bibliography
Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well with Karen Southwick (2004)
The Business of Changing the World: 20 Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy with Carlye Adler (2006)
Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company and Revolutionized an Industry with Carlye Adler (2009)
Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change (2019)
References
Further reading
External links
Official company biography
1964 births
Living people
Salesforce
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American businesspeople
American billionaires
American computer programmers
American Internet company founders
American software engineers
American technology chief executives
American technology writers
Apple Inc. employees
Businesspeople from San Francisco
Jewish American philanthropists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Oracle employees
People from Burlingame, California
Marshall School of Business alumni
Writers from San Francisco
Giving Pledgers
21st-century philanthropists |
264569 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20home%20computers | List of home computers | The home computers between 1977 and about 1995 were different from today's uniform and predictable machines. During this time it made economic sense for manufacturers to make microcomputers aimed at the home user. By simplifying the machines, and making use of household items such as television sets and cassette recorders instead of dedicated computer peripherals, the home computer allowed the consumer to own a computer at a fraction of the price of computers oriented to small business. Today, the price of microcomputers has dropped to the point where there's no advantage to building a separate, incompatible series just for home users.
While many office-type personal computers were used in homes, in this list a "home computer" is a factory-assembled mass-marketed consumer product, usually at significantly lower cost than contemporary business computers. It would have an alphabetic keyboard and a multi-line alphanumeric display, the ability to run both games software as well as application software and user-written programs, and some removable mass storage device (such as cassette tape or floppy disk).
This list excludes smartphones, personal digital assistants, pocket computers, laptop computers, programmable calculators and pure video game consoles. Single-board development or evaluation boards, intended to demonstrate a microprocessor, are excluded since these were not marketed to general consumers.
Pioneering kit and assembled hobby microcomputers which generally required electronics skills to build or operate are listed separately, as are computers intended primarily for use in schools. A hobby-type computer often would have required significant expansion of memory and peripherals to make it useful for the usual role of a factory-made home computer. School computers usually had facilities to share expensive peripherals such as disk drives and printers, and often had provision for central administration.
Attributes
Attributes are as typically advertised by the original manufacturer. Popular machines inspired third-party sources for adapters, add-on processors, mass storage, and other peripherals.
"Processor" indicates the microprocessor chip that ran the system. A few home computers had multiple processors, generally used for input/output devices. Processor speeds were not a competitive point among home computer manufacturers, and typically the processor ran either at its maximum rated speed ( between 1 and 4 MHz for most processor types here), or at some fraction of the television color subcarrier signal, for economy of design. Since a crystal oscillator was necessary for stable color, it was often also used as the microprocessor clock source. Many processors were second-sourced, with different manufacturers making the same device under different part numbers. Variations of a basic part number might have been used to indicate minor variations in speed or transistor type, or might indicate fairly significant alterations to the prototype's capabilities. In the Soviet Bloc countries, manufacturers made functional duplicates of Western microprocessors under different part number series.
TV indicates the factory configuration produces composite video compatible with a home TV receiver. Some computers came with a built-in RF modulator to allow connection to the TV receiver antenna terminals; others output composite video for use with a free-standing monitor or external RF modulator. Still others had built-in or proprietary monitors. Often a composite video monitor (monochrome or color) would be substituted for the family TV. Some standard types of video controller ICs were popular, but see the very detailed List of home computers by video hardware for a discussion of video capabilities of different models. Memory and TV bandwidth restrictions meant that typical home computers had only a few color choices and perhaps 20 lines of 40 characters of text as an upper limit to their video capabilities. Where the same model was sold in countries using PAL or NTSC television standards, sometimes there would be minor variations in the speed of the processor, because NTSC and PAL use different frequencies for the color information and the crystal for the video system was often also used for the processor clock.
Base mass storage was whatever came in the basic configuration. Some machines had built-in cassette drives or optional external drives, others relied on the consumer to provide a cassette recorder. Cassette recorders had the primary virtue of being widely available as a consumer product at the time. Typically a home computer would generate audio tones to encode data, that could be stored on audio tape through a direct connection to the recorder. Re-loading the data required re-winding the tape. The home computer would contain some circuit such as a phase-locked loop to convert audio tones back into digital data. Since consumer cassette recorders were not made for remote control, the user would have to manually operate the recorder in response to prompts from the computer. Random access to data on a cassette was impossible, since the entire tape would have to be searched to retrieve any particular item. A few manufacturers integrated a cassette tape drive or cassette-like tape mechanism into the console, but these variants were made obsolete by the reduction in cost of floppy diskette drives.
Floppy disk drives were initially very costly compared to the system purchase price. Plug-in ROM cartridges containing game or application software were popular in earlier home computers since they were easier to use, faster, and more reliable than cassette tapes. Once diskette drives became available at low cost, cartridges declined in popularity since they were more expensive to manufacture than reproducing a diskette, and had comparatively small capacity compared to diskettes. A few cartridges contained battery-backed memory that allowed users to save data (for example, game high scores) between uses of the cartridge.
Typically there were several models or variants within a product line, especially to account for different international video standards and power supplies; see the linked articles for variants and consequences of variations. "Compatibility" indicates some measure of compatibility with a parent type, however, sometimes incompatibility existed even within a product family. A "clone" system has identical hardware and is functionally interchangeable with its prototype; a few clone systems relied on illicit copies of system ROMs to make them functional.
Manufacturers and models
List of hobby, kit, or trainer computers
This type of microcomputer required significant electronics skills to assemble or operate. They were sometimes sold in kit form that required the user to insert and solder components in a printed circuit board. They may have had just blinking lights and toggle switches, or a hexadecimal display and a numeric keypad. While some units were possibly expandable to the "checkbook balancing/homework typing" stage, most were intended more for education on the use and application of microprocessors. See also Microprocessor development board, Single-board computer.
Altair 8800
Apple I and also Replica 1
Applix 1616
Compukit UK101
Dick Smith Super-80 Computer
Educ-8 non-microprocessor kit computer
Elektor Junior Computer
Elektor TV Games Computer
Ferguson Big Board
Galaksija, a build-it-yourself home computer that created a wave of enthusiasts
Heathkit H8 and relations
Heathkit H11
Heath ET-100 8088 trainer
Kenbak-1
KIM-1
LNW-80
MK14
Mark-8
Micro-Professor MPF-I
Nascom 1 and Nascom 2
Newbear 77-68
Processor Technology SOL 20
PSI Comp 80 (computer)
SCELBI
Sinclair ZX80 kit
Tangerine MICROTAN 65
TEC-1
Wave Mate Bullet
School computers
These were aimed at the class room, not the living room. Some types were popular in the centrally planned economies of eastern Europe where Western computers were scarce, or in the early days of computer education in Western schools. Popular home computers of the period were fitted with various types of network interfaces to allow sharing of files, large disk drives, and printers, and often allowed a teacher to interact with a student, supervise the system usage, and carry out administrative tasks from a host computer.
Acorn Archimedes (and derivatives)
Aster CT-80
BBC Micro
Commodore SuperPET/SP9000
Compis
IQ 151
LINK 480Z
Regency Systems R2C
Research Machines 380Z Industrial and school systems
Tiki 100
TIM-011
Unisys ICON
Cardboard and demonstrator "computers"
Logic demonstrators illustrated some of the logical principles of computer circuits, but were incapable of automatic operation or non-trivial calculations. Some were literally cardboard, others used combinations of switches and lamps to show how logical operations worked. Some products demonstrated logical operations purely mechanically.
CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation cardboard computer logic demonstrator
Digi-Comp I, mechanical logic demonstrator
Digi-Comp II, mechanical logic using marbles
Geniac, non-electronic logic demonstrator
Minivac 601, logic trainer that demonstrated computer circuits
See also
History of computer hardware in Soviet Bloc countries
Homebrew Computer Club
Homebuilt computer
List of home computers by video hardware classified by video interface
List of computers running CP/M contains a list of personal computers running CP/M. These were usually intended for small office use.
List of Soviet computer systems includes many "home" systems as well as office and "big iron" systems.
Market share of personal computer vendors
Popular Electronics
Simon (computer), a relay computer (demonstrator) from 1950
SWTPC
TV Typewriter
References
External links
Obsolete technology website — Information about many old computers.
old-computers.com — Web Site dedicated to old computers.
oldcomputer.info — Web site with information about many old computers.
History of Computers — online magazine featuring pictures and information about many computers made between the 1970s and the early 1990s
epocalc The complete inventory of microcomputer manufacturers
List of home computers
Home computers |
14371753 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge%20sharing | Knowledge sharing | Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge (namely, information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, peers, families, communities (for example, Wikipedia), or within or between organizations. It bridges the individual and organizational knowledge, improving the absorptive and innovation capacity and thus leading to sustained competitive advantage of companies as well as individuals. Knowledge sharing is part of the Knowledge management process.
Apart from traditional face-to-face knowledge sharing, social media is a good tool because it is convenient, efficient, and widely used.
Organizations have recognized that knowledge constitutes a valuable intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantages. However, technology constitutes only one of the many factors that affect the sharing of knowledge in organizations, such as organizational culture, trust, and incentives. The sharing of knowledge constitutes a major challenge in the field of knowledge management because some employees tend to resist sharing their knowledge with the rest of the organization.
In the digital world, websites and mobile applications enable knowledge or talent sharing between individuals and/or within teams. The individuals can easily reach the people who want to learn and share their talent to get rewarded.
Knowledge sharing as flow or transfer
Although knowledge is commonly treated as an object, Dave Snowden has argued it is more appropriate to teach it as both a flow and a thing. Knowledge as a flow can be related to the concept of tacit knowledge. While the difficulty of sharing knowledge is in transferring knowledge from one entity to another, it may prove profitable for organizations to acknowledge the difficulties of knowledge transfer and adopt new knowledge management strategies accordingly.
Knowledge sharing levels
Knowledge can be shared in different ways and levels. The following segmentation sheds light on the essence of sharing.
Explicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge sharing occurs when explicit knowledge is made available to be shared between entities. Explicit knowledge sharing can happen successfully when the following criteria are met:
Articulation: the knowledge provider can describe the information.
Awareness: the recipient must be aware that knowledge is available.
Access: the knowledge recipient can access the knowledge provider.
Guidance: the body of knowledge must be defined and differentiated into different topics or domains so as to avoid information overload, and to provide easy access to appropriate material. Knowledge managers are often considered key figures in the creation of an effective knowledge sharing system.
Completeness: the holistic approach to knowledge sharing in the form of both centrally managed and self-published knowledge.
Tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge sharing occurs through different types of socialization. Although tacit knowledge is difficult to identify and codify, relevant factors that influence tacit knowledge sharing include:
Informal networks such as daily interactions between people within a defined environment (work, school, home, etc.). These networks span hierarchies and functions.
The provision of space where people can engage in unstructured or unmonitored discussions, thereby fostering informal networks.
Unstructured, less-structured or experimental work practices that encourage creative problem solving, and the development of social networks.
An organizational culture which is based on trust. This encourages employees to share their knowledge.
Employees' strong organizational commitment and loyalty to their employers supports tacit knowledge sharing.
Embedded knowledge
Embedded knowledge sharing occurs when knowledge is shared through clearly delineated products, processes, routines, etc. This knowledge can be shared in different ways, such as:
Scenario planning and debriefing: providing a structured space to create possible scenarios, followed by a discussion of what happened, and how it could have been different.
Management training.
Knowledge transfer: deliberately integrating systems, processes, routines, etc., to combine and share relevant knowledge.
Methods
There are several methods both formal and informal that have claims to enable knowledge sharing in organisations. These include, but are not limited to:
Communities of Practice: a group of people who share a craft or a profession; usually takes the form of cross organizational or inter-organizational workgroups, in physical, virtual or blended forms
Communities of Interest: Informal and voluntary gathering of individuals discussing on a regular basis, in many cases through defined digital channel
Workgroups: Task-oriented groups that may include project teams or employees from various departments, working and sharing knowledge together towards a specific goal such as product development or production
Knowledge cafe: a methodology to conduct knowledge sharing sessions using a combination of a large assembly and of small discussion groups of 3–5 persons, usually around small tables
Lessons learned techniques: techniques to learn from what has happened before and what could be done better the next time.
Mentoring: a way to share a wide range of knowledge from technical values to technical and operational skills. Via mentoring programs, it is possible to share tacit norms of behaviour and cultural values.
Chats: Informal sharing, using instant messaging platforms. The knowledge is accessible mainly in the present or by search.
Wikis: digital spaces to gather and share knowledge on specific topics. While discussion groups and chats are time-based. Wikis are topic-based. Wiki pages and topics link to form an intuitive network of accumulated knowledge. Categories are also used as a means to organize and present topics in wiki pages.
Storytelling: an informal way to share knowledge, where knowledge owner shares real life stories to other.
Shared Knowledge Bases: Shared organized content, containing information and knowledge. Can be formed as websites, intranets databases, file drives, comprehensive models based on probabilistic-causal relationships or any other form that enables the access to content by the various individuals.
Expert Maps: Organized lists or network of experts and corresponding expertise. Enables indirect access to the knowledge (via the expert).
Connection to adjacent disciplines
Information technology systems
Information technology (IT) systems are common tools that help facilitate knowledge sharing and knowledge management. The main role of IT systems is to help people share knowledge through common platforms and electronic storage to help make access simpler, encouraging economic reuse of knowledge. IT systems can provide codification, personalization, electronic repositories for information and can help people locate each other to communicate directly. With appropriate training and education, IT systems can make it easier for organizations to acquire, store or disseminate knowledge. For instance, the implementation of discussion forums for enabling meaningful conversation, knowledge acquisition and peer engagement can pave the way for a knowledge‐sharing culture as opposed to a knowledge‐hoarding culture.
Economic theory
In economic theory, knowledge sharing has been studied in the field of industrial organization and in the field of contract theory. In industrial organization, Bhattacharya, Glazer, and Sappington (1992) have emphasized the importance of knowledge sharing in research joint ventures in a context of imperfect competition. In the theory of incomplete contracts, Rosenkranz and Schmitz (1999, 2003) have used the Grossman-Hart-Moore property rights approach to study how knowledge sharing is affected by the underlying ownership structure.
Importance to organizations
Knowledge is transferred in organizations whether it is a managed process or not since everyday knowledge transfer is a key part of organizational life. However, finding the best expert to share their knowledge in a specific matter could be hard, especially in larger organizations. Therefore, a structured strategy for knowledge transfer is required for the organization to thrive. Larger companies have a higher tendency to invest more on knowledge management processes, although competitive benefits are gained regardless of organization size.
In an organizational context, tacit knowledge refers to a kind of knowledge that human beings develop by the experience they gain over years. At present the employees' experience and knowledge can be seen as the most important and most valuable source that organizations have to protect. Knowledge constitutes a valuable, intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantages within organizations. Several factors affect knowledge sharing in organizations, such as organizational culture, trust, incentives, and technology. In an organization, five distinct conditions of the organizational culture have a positive effect on knowledge-sharing: communication and coordination between groups, trust, top management support, the reward system, and openness. Concerning the communication and coordination between groups condition, the organizations that are centralized with a bureaucratic management style can hinder the creation of new knowledge whereas a flexible decentralized organizational structure encourages knowledge-sharing. Also, internationalization is crucial for compliance or conformity. Dalkir (2005) says that internationalization is believing that the "behavior dictated by the norm truly the right and proper way to behave". If the norm is to communicate and collaborate between teams, it will be much easier for members of the group to internalize these values and act accordingly. Knowledge sharing activities are commonly supported by knowledge management systems, a form of information technology (IT) that facilitates and organizes information within a company or organization.
Challenges
Knowledge sharing can sometimes constitute a major challenge in the field of knowledge management.
The difficulty of knowledge sharing resides in the transference of knowledge from one entity to another. Some employees and team leaders tend to resist sharing their knowledge because of the notion that knowledge is property; ownership, therefore, it becomes very important. Leaders and supervisors tend to hoard information in order to demonstrate power and supremacy over their employees.
In order to counteract this, individuals must be reassured that they will receive some type of incentive for what they create. Supervisors and managers have a key role in this – they need to create a work culture which encourages employees to share their knowledge. However, Dalkir (2005) demonstrated that individuals are most commonly rewarded for what they know, not what they share. Negative consequences, such as isolation and resistance to ideas, occur when knowledge sharing is impeded.
Sometimes the problem is that a part of an employee's knowledge can be subconscious and therefore it may be difficult to share information. To promote knowledge sharing and remove knowledge sharing obstacles, the organizational culture of an entity should encourage discovery and innovation. Members who trust each other are willing to exchange knowledge and at the same time want to embrace knowledge from other members as well. National culture is also one of the common barriers of knowledge sharing because culture has a huge effect on how people are tend to share knowledge between each other. In some cultures, people share everything, in other cultures people share when asked, and in some cultures, people don't share even if it would help to achieve common goals.
The political scientist Hélène Hatzfeld has pointed out that people who have knowledge can be reluctant to share that knowledge when they are not confident in their own expertise, so to facilitate knowledge sharing, structures can be designed to elevate everyone to the status of a potential expert and make them more comfortable contributing; one example of such a system, to which Hatzfeld attributes mixed success in this regard, is Wikipedia.
Pinho et al. (2012) have made comprehensive literature review of knowledge management barriers and facilitators. Barriers are considered to be obstacles that hinder knowledge acquisition, creation, sharing and transfer in and between organizations based on individual, socio-organizational or technological reasons. Respectively facilitators are seen as enabling factors that improve, stimulate or promote the flow of knowledge. According to Maier et al. (2002) understanding of the process supporting knowledge management enables further consideration of the obstacles and facilitating factors.
See also
Collective intelligence
Community of practice
Transfer of learning
Knowledge market
Knowledge translation
Knowledge management
References |
23667387 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCSW | OpenCSW | The Open Community Software Project (OpenCSW) is an open-source project providing Solaris binary packages of freely available or open-source software.
It is an Association in terms of Article 60-79 of the Swiss Civil Code with domicile in Greifensee/ZH, Switzerland. The purpose of the association is to provide software packages that run on currently supported production versions of the Solaris Operating Environment. It was founded as a fork by former members of the "CSW" packaging project, previously hosted at Blastwave. The Blastwave project is now defunct.
OpenCSW provides packages for Solaris 9, 10, and 11 (by compatible Solaris 10 packages) for 32 and 64-bit, x86 and SPARC architectures. Solaris 8 is no longer a 1st-class supported OS, however, there still exists a legacy Solaris 8 archive.
Technical details
OpenCSW package repositories are compatible with pkgutil, a package installation utility, as well as the original pkg-get utility. The utility automatically handles package dependency resolution and downloads package files from mirrors, simplifying package installation.
Most new packages are being built using GAR, a framework written primarily in GNU make, which automates large parts of Solaris package creation.
OpenCSW is at the forefront of smooth integration of SVR4 style packages into Solaris.
It is possibly the only site to make full advantage of SVR4 "Class Action Scripts", which standardize common pkgadd-type operations, eliminating the need for security prompting about most per-class custom install scripts.
With the disappearance of Blastwave and the removal of free downloads of SunFreeware on 30 September 2013, OpenCSW is the biggest source of Solaris packages. , it had 3739 unique packages for Solaris 10.
See also
Blastwave — a project from which OpenCSW was forked
References
External links
Solaris software
Free software distributions
OpenSolaris-derived software distributions |
499547 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruse%20de%20guerre | Ruse de guerre | The French , sometimes literally translated as ruse of war, is a non-uniform term; generally what is understood by "ruse of war" can be separated into two groups. The first classifies the phrase purely as an act of military deception against one's opponent; the second emphasizes acts against one's opponent by creative, clever, unorthodox means, sometimes involving force multipliers or superior knowledge. The term stratagem, from Ancient Greek (, 'act of generalship'), is also used in this sense.
are described from ancient to modern times, both in semi-mythical accounts such as the story of the Trojan Horse in Virgil's Aeneid, and in well-documented events such as the flying of the American flag by the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania in 1915 (whilst the United States was a neutral country) to deter attack by German submarines, and they also feature in fiction.
The term is given legal meaning within the rules of war. Good faith is required, but at least 17 different types of , including ambushes, false radio messages, the use of spies and the use of dummy guns, are considered legitimate as long as they do not involve treachery or perfidy. Landmines and similar traps can be considered perfidious under the rules in certain circumstances. Explicitly prohibited under article 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 include improper use of a flag of truce or the military insignia of the enemy.
Examples
Ancient times
According to Homer's somewhat mythical account in the Iliad, the Greeks during the Trojan War pretended to give up their fruitless ten-year siege of the city of Troy and sailed away, leaving behind the Trojan Horse. After the Trojans pulled what they believed was a parting gift within the walls of the city, soldiers that had hidden inside the hollow horse during the previous night emerged and opened the city's gates, allowing the awaiting army to enter the city.
Prior to a naval battle with King Eumenes II of Pergamon, Hannibal sent a herald with a message for the opposing commander. That was a trick aiming to locate Eumenes's ship so that Hannibal could concentrate his forces against it.
Alexander the Great walked his men up and down a river continuously to condition his opponent, Porus, into a false sense of security in the belief that his whole army was searching for a ford. Then, under the cover of night Alexander marched a contingent of his men upriver and crossed the Indus, while his remaining forces marched south to their camp as they usually did. This feint allowed Alexander to hide his troops' location and win the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC.
As stated in the probably fictional account in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang tricked Sima Yi using the Empty Fort Strategy from Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Zhuge Liang sat upon the walls of the cities, his men far outnumbered by the Wei army which was advancing toward him. Zhuge Liang sat upon the walls and played his instrument, seemingly calm and composed, tricking Sima Yi into thinking that the Shu had troops hidden in the surrounding area for an ambush. Zhuge Liang was able to quickly flee the area as the Wei retreated.
Modern history
19th century
The Siege of Detroit was an early engagement in the War of 1812, where a smaller British-First Nations force, led by Major-General Isaac Brock and Shawnee leader Tecumseh, used bluff and deception to intimidate Brigadier General William Hull into surrendering the fort, the town of Detroit, and a dispirited American force that nevertheless outnumbered the British and First Nations. Intercepting American dispatches from Fort Detroit, Brock judged the morale of the American garrison to be low, and that the American general had a fear of First Nations in particular. Brock arranged for misleading letters to fall into American hands, stating an inflated figure of 5,000 First Nations warriors were already in Amherstburg, in an attempt to simulate a larger First Nations force had attached themselves to his army. Prior to the siege, Brock also sent a letter demanding for surrender to Hull, stating:
In an effort to further the illusion that a large First Nations force was attached with Brock's force, Tecumseh extended his men, and marched them three times through an opening in the woods at the rear of the fort in full view of the fort. Brock similarly dressed members of the Canadian militia as British regulars, and instructed soldiers to light individual fires instead of one fire per unit, thereby creating the illusion of a much larger army.
Use of deception in order to mask an inferior force was also used in another battle during the War of 1812, the Battle of Chateauguay. Outnumbered during battle, the Canadian Fencibles were initially outflanked and falling back, before Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry of the Canadian Voltigeurs ordered bugle calls, cheers and Indian war whoops, in a ruse to make the Americans believe that they were about to be enveloped. Fearing themselves outnumbered and about to be outflanked, Brigadier-General Wade Hampton called off the American advance, withdrawing his forces to Plattsburgh, New York.
During the American Civil War, Union General George Meade's General Order No. 13 of 1865 was retracted after it was determined that his criticism of Brigadier-General McLaughlin was based on "nothing more than the obvious result of those ruses de guerre, by which the very best officers may, at times, be victimized", after the Confederate Army falsely claimed that it had gained a foothold in the Union Army lines.
20th century
An effort by the Imperial Japanese Navy to lure the Russian fleet out of its harbor during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 was described by The New York Times as "a clever ruse of war to entice the Russian ships out of Port Arthur".
The use of the American flag flown on the liner Lusitania while crossing through the Irish Sea to avoid attack by German submarines during the First World War was criticized in debate in the United States House of Representatives by Republican Eben Martin of South Dakota, who stated that "the United States cannot be made a party to a ruse of war where the national colors are involved".
During World War I, the crew of the merchant-raiding German light cruiser rigged a dummy fourth funnel on top of her radio room to disguise her as a British cruiser, most of which were equipped with four funnels. During First and Second World Wars, Q-ships were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the former Imperial Japanese Navy battleship , which had been taken out of reserve shortly after the outbreak of war for use as a troop transport but then converted to a repair ship, was fitted with dummy wooden main batteries fore and aft to resemble an old battleship after her arrival in Shanghai on 29 December 1938.
In the lead up to the First Battle of Sirte during the Second World War, the fast minelayer successfully impersonated a force of two battleships using false signals traffic, as part of a decoy mission against Italian forces.
The Allied Combined Operations raid on the Normandie Dock in Saint Nazaire employed several legitimate ruses during their voyage up the Loire estuary, including flying German colours and replying to signal challenges by giving misleading replies in German. These measures were all designed to buy time for the attacking force. When these tactics ceased to be effective and German shore batteries opened fire in earnest, all the British ships lowered their German colours and hoisted White Ensigns before returning fire.
German commando Otto Skorzeny led his troops wearing American uniforms to infiltrate American lines in Operation Greif during the Battle of the Bulge. Skorzeny later reported that he was told by experts in military law that wearing American uniforms was a defensible ruse de guerre, provided his troops took off their American uniforms, and put on German uniforms, prior to firing their weapons. Skorzeny was acquitted by a United States military court in Dachau in 1947, after his defense counsel argued that the "wearing of American uniforms was a legitimate ruse of war for espionage and sabotage" as described by The New York Times.
In relation to the rules of war
Good faith
According to the rules of war, good faith in dealing with the enemy must be observed as a rule of conduct, but this does not prevent measures such as using spies and secret agents, encouraging defection or insurrection among the enemy civilian population, corrupting enemy civilians or soldiers by bribes, or inducing the enemy's soldiers to desert, surrender, or rebel. In general, a belligerent may resort to those measures for mystifying or misleading the enemy against which the enemy ought to take measures to protect itself.
Legitimate ruses
Legitimate ruses include:
surprises; ambushes; feigned attacks, retreats, or flights;
simulating quiet and inactivity (to lull the enemy into complacency);
use of small forces to simulate large units (for example, inducing an enemy unit to surrender by pretending that it is surrounded by a large force);
transmitting false or misleading radio or telephone messages;
deception of the enemy by bogus orders purporting to have been issued by the enemy commander;
making use of the enemy's signals and passwords or secret handshakes;
pretending to communicate with nonexistent troops or reinforcements;
deceptive supply movements (which might make the enemy think you are preparing for action when you're not);
deliberate planting of false information;
use of spies and secret agents;
moving landmarks (to confuse the enemy operating in unfamiliar territory);
putting up dummy guns and vehicles or laying dummy mines;
erection of dummy installations and airfields (to intimidate or encourage useless attack);
removing unit identifications (but not those that identify the belligerent while in combat) from uniforms;
psychological warfare activities;
disguising a warship to appear to be a neutral merchant vessel, or a merchant vessel on your opponent's side, has traditionally been considered a legitimate ruse de guerre, provided the belligerent raises their own flag to break the deception before firing their guns. This was called sailing under false colors. Both sides during the world wars used this tactic, most famously the Royal Navy's Q ships. The German raider used this tactic against the superior , disguising herself as the Dutch merchant vessel Straat Malakka prior to their mutually destructive engagement.
disguising a warship to appear to be one of your opponent's warships has traditionally been considered to be a legitimate ruse de guerre, provided the belligerent raises their own flag to drop the disguise, prior to firing their guns. The Germans took steps to disguise their pocket battleships as Allied cruisers during World War II. This tactic was also used by the Royal Navy to great effect during the Napoleonic Wars, since the boarding and capture of enemy vessels was quite common during that time, and information about the current ownership of vessels was not easy to disseminate rapidly.
No treachery or perfidy
Further, according to the rules of war, ruses of war are legitimate so long as they do not involve treachery or perfidy on the part of the belligerent resorting to them. They are, however, forbidden if they contravene any generally accepted rule.
traps that are attached or associated in any way with:
sick, wounded, or dead;
burial, cremation, or graves;
food or drink;
kitchen utensils or appliances;
Prohibited ruses
Article 23 of the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land provides that: "It is especially forbidden....(b) To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army....(f) To make improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag, or of the military insignia and military uniform of the enemy, as well as the distinctive badges of the Geneva Convention". Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions expanded the rules of prohibiting certain type of ruses as defined in Articles 37, 38, and 39.
The line of demarcation between legitimate ruses and forbidden acts of perfidy is sometimes indistinct. In general, it would be an improper practice to secure an advantage over the enemy by deliberate lying or misleading conduct which involves a breach of faith, or when there is a moral obligation to speak the truth. For example, it is improper to pretend to surrender to secure an advantage over the opposing belligerent.
To broadcast to the enemy that an armistice had been agreed upon when such is not the case would be treacherous. Abuse of the protections afforded to medical personnel (by disguising combat soldiers as medics, or by putting a red cross on a combat vehicle) is also considered unacceptable. In 1946, a German soldier, Heinz Hagendorf, was found guilty by a U.S. military tribunal at the Dachau Trials and sentenced to six months imprisonment for having "wrongfully used the Red Cross emblem in a combat zone by firing a weapon at American soldiers from an enemy ambulance displaying such emblem."
References
Further reading
Stratagems (), by the 1st-century Roman author Frontinus, which concerns military stratagems drawn from Greek and Roman history.
Stratagems (), book by the 2nd-century Macedonian author Polyaenus which concerns military strategems. In common with Frontinus' work (see above), the title is sometimes given as Strategemata.
Stratagems of the Warring States, English title of a Chinese book compiled between the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE. Alternative English titles include Strategies of the Warring States.
Thirty-Six Stratagems, English title of a Chinese book concerning stratagems which have military and civil applications.
Strategy
Tactics
War
War crimes by type |
2650931 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaacob%20Ibrahim | Yaacob Ibrahim | Yaacob bin Ibrahim (Jawi: يعقوب بن إبراهيم; born 3 October 1955) is a retired Singaporean politician. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was a Member of Parliament representing the Kolam Ayer ward of Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) from 1997 to 2020, and had held several positions in the Cabinet from 2002 to 2018, including Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs (2002–2018), Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (2002–2004), Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (2004–2011), Minister for Communications and Information (2011–2018), and Minister-in-charge of Cyber Security (2015–2018).
Education and early career
Yaacob studied at Tanjong Katong Technical Secondary School, which turned coeducational during his time there. He graduated from the University of Singapore with an honours degree in civil engineering in 1980 and in 1989 obtained a Doctor of Philosophy from Stanford University. He was a postdoc at Cornell University. He returned to Singapore in 1990 and joined the National University of Singapore faculty in 1991. He received his department's teaching excellence award in 1994. He is currently on leave of absence from the university as an associate professor.
Political career
A Member of Parliament since 1997, he represented the Jalan Besar GRC (1997–2011) and the Moulmein–Kallang GRC since the 2011 general election. Within both GRCs, he has been responsible for the Kolam Ayer ward. In April 2001 he became the first Mayor of Central District of Singapore until November 2001.
Yaacob was Parliamentary Secretary and Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. He became a Minister of State for at the Ministry of Community Development and Sports in November 2001. In March 2002, Yaacob became the Acting Minister for Community Development and Sports and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs and made a full member of the Cabinet in May 2003.
He became the Minister of Environment and Water Resources in 2004. In 2009, after the Bukit Timah canal burst its banks after a downpour, resulting in parts of Bukit Timah being submerged, Yaacob remarked it was a freak event that "occurs once in 50 years".
In May 2011, in a cabinet rearrangement, Yaacob became Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts. He continued to serve as the Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs. Yaacob is on the PAP Central Executive Committee as Vice-Chairman. In April 2015, Dr Yaacob was appointed the Minister in charge of Cyber Security and oversees the Cyber Security Agency (Singapore), an agency formed under the Prime Minister's Office. He had been re-appointed to serve in this capacity following the September 2015 General Election.
Yaacob stepped down from the cabinet on 30 April 2018.
After the 13th parliament was dissolved on 23 June 2020, Yaacob retired from politics, ending his political career after 23 years of service.
Personal life
Yaacob has been active in community service since his school days and has been involved in the Association of Muslim Professionals, Jamiyah, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura and the Nature Society (Singapore). Initially a volunteer tutor, became the Chairman of the Council for the Development of Singapore Malay/Muslim Community (Yayasan Mendaki) in March 2002.
He is married with a son and a daughter. Questions about his son's citizenship and if he would serve national service were raised when a leaked US diplomatic cable from WikiLeaks stated the minister's two children as US citizens. In response, he clarified that his children have dual American and Singaporean citizenship until the age of 18 because of the status of his wife as an American citizen. He confirms his son will serve national service.
Yaacob's eldest brother Ismail Ibrahim was the first Malay recipient of the President's Scholarship. His sister Zuraidah Ibrahim was a former Straits Times journalist now with South China Morning Post. His younger brother Latiff Ibrahim is a lawyer.
References
External links
Members of the Cabinet of Singapore
Members of the Parliament of Singapore
People's Action Party politicians
Environment ministers of Singapore
Singaporean engineers
Stanford University alumni
University of Singapore alumni
National University of Singapore faculty
Singaporean people of Malay descent
Singaporean Muslims
1955 births
Living people
Communications ministers of Singapore |
54307265 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ToaruOS | ToaruOS | ToaruOS (also known as ToAruOS or とあるOS; 'toaru' is Japanese roughly equivalent to 'a certain') is a hobby operating system and kernel developed largely independently (notably contrary to most modern OSes, which are based on existing source code) by K. Lange. Despite a 1.0 version being released, Lange has stated that it is still 'incomplete', and may not be 'suitable for any purpose you might have for an operating system'. It is released under the permissive UIUC License, and supports 64-bit computer hardware with SMP.
Design and features
ToaruOS is programmed in C, and uses the Cairo graphics library. It has support for GCC, Python, and Simple DirectMedia Layer as well as many open-source utilities – including Vim. A package manager and basic window switcher are also included.
The kernel is a 'basic Unix-like environment'. It has a hybrid architecture, with internal and external device support being delegated to modules. Several filesystems are supported via this system, including ext2 and ISO 9660. Networking support is included, but is limited to simple IPv4 functionality. The userspace also has a window manager, Yutani (named after the Wayland-Yutani Corporation from the Alien franchise, and as a reference to the Wayland Display Server for Linux), with input support. It stores windows as shared memory regions with 32-bit colour, and uses pipes to communicate to other parts of the OS. Unusually, windows also support a rotation feature.
History
Development was started by creator K. Lange in December 2010; it initially was supported by the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, but after the beginning of 2012, it largely shifted to being mostly done by Lange. Initially, it was based on tutorials for x86 kernels. The operating system was named after the A Certain Scientific Railgun series of manga, but Lange stated it also mirrors generic naming of other hobby OSes. A GUI was added with a window manager in 2012, this was replaced with a more advanced version in 2014.
The initial official release, version 1.0, was released at the end of January. This marked the first stable release, but Lange stated it was still 'a work in development with so much work left to be done'. This was superseded by versions 1.0.1 and 1.0.2, which added audio improvements and fixed bugs.
For April Fools' Day 2015, Lange released PonyOS, a version of ToaruOS themed after the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
See also
TempleOS – another operating system developed largely from scratch
Redox OS – another Unix-like independently developed OS
References
External links
Official website
toaruos on GitHub
Free software operating systems
X86 operating systems
2017 software
Free software programmed in C
Public-domain software with source code
Lightweight Unix-like systems
Hobbyist operating systems |
1482196 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyberCash | CyberCash | CyberCash, Inc. was an internet payment service for electronic commerce, headquartered in Reston, Virginia. It was founded in August 1994 by Daniel C. Lynch (who served as chairman), William N. Melton (who served as president and CEO, and later chairman), Steve Crocker (Chief Technology Officer), and Bruce G. Wilson. The company initially provided an online wallet software to consumers and provided software to merchants to accept credit card payments. Later, they additionally offered "CyberCoin," a micropayment system modeled after the NetBill research project at Carnegie Mellon University, which they later licensed.
At the time, the U.S. government had a short-lived restriction on the export of cryptography, making it illegal to provide encryption technology outside the United States. CyberCash obtained an exemption from the Department of State, which concluded that it would be easier to create encryption technology from scratch than to extract it out of Cyber-Cash's software.
In 1995, the company proposed RFC 1898, CyberCash Credit Card Protocol Version 0.8. The company went public on February 19, 1996, with the symbol "CYCH" and its shares rose 79% on the first day of trading. In 1998, CyberCash bought ICVerify, makers of computer-based credit card processing software, and in 1999 added another software company to their lineup, purchasing Tellan Software. In January 2000, a teenage Russian hacker nicknamed "Maxus" announced that he had cracked CyberCash's ICVerify application; the company denied this, stating that ICVerify was not even in use by the purportedly hacked organization.
On January 1, 2000, many users of CyberCash's ICVerify application fell victim to the Y2K Bug, causing double recording of credit card payments through their system. Although CyberCash had already released a Y2K-compliant update to the software, many users had not installed it.
Bankruptcy
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 11, 2001. VeriSign acquired the Cybercash assets (except for ICVerify) and name a couple of months later. On November 21, 2005 PayPal (already an eBay company) acquired VeriSign's payment services, including Cybercash.
See also
Digital currency
References
External links
CyberCash opens Net to small change (News.com, September 30, 1996)
CyberCash moves to thin wallet (News.com, August 20, 1998)
Cybercash Disputes Hacker's Claim (Internet News, January 11, 2000)
Payment systems
Electronic funds transfer
Financial technology companies
Mobile payments
Online payments
Payment service providers
American companies established in 1994
Financial services companies established in 1994
1994 establishments in Virginia
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 |
15678821 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20college%20nickname%20changes%20in%20the%20United%20States | List of college nickname changes in the United States | In the United States, most universities and colleges that sponsor athletics programs have adopted an official nickname for its associated teams. Often, these nicknames have changed for any number of reasons, which might include a change in the name of the school itself, a term becoming dated or otherwise changing meaning, or changes in racial perceptions and sensitivities. In the case of the latter, many schools have recently deprecated nicknames that some might consider offensive to American Indians, a group that has been a traditional inspiration for athletic teams.
Changes
Adams State Grizzlies, formerly the "Indians"
Akron Zips, called the "Zippers" from 1927 to 1950; this was changed when the term became most associated with the type of clothing fastener.
Alabama–Huntsville Chargers, changed from "Uhlan Chargers" to "Chargers" over time
Alaska Nanooks, changed from the "Polar Bears" to "Nanooks" (the Inupiaq word for polar bear) in 1963.
Alvernia Golden Wolves, changed from "Crusaders" ahead of the 2017–18 season
Amherst Mammoths, adopted in 2017 after "Lord Jeffs" was dropped in 2016
Arizona State Sun Devils, formerly the "Owls", then the "Bulldogs" from 1922 to 1946
Arkansas Razorbacks, changed from the "Cardinals" in 1909.
Arkansas State Red Wolves, formerly the "Indians" (1931–2008), "Warriors" (1930–1931), "Gorillas" (1925–1930), and "Aggies" (1911–1925).
Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys — Originally nicknamed "Aggies"; the term "Wonder Boys" was first attached to the school's football team in an Arkansas Gazette story on November 17, 1920, and was soon officially adopted. The women's nickname of "Golden Suns" was adopted once Tech added women's sports.
Army Black Knights, the current nickname was derived from newspapers calling the team the "Black Knights of the Hudson" in the 1930s. It was changed from the "Cadets" in 1999. Cadets is still considered an acceptable use, however.
Auburn–Montgomery Warhawks — Changed from "Senators" in 2011.
Ball State Cardinals, changed from the "Hoosieroons" in 1929.
Baruch Bearcats, formerly the "Statesmen"
Belmont Bruins, changed from "Rebels" in 1995
Bethel Threshers, changed from "Graymaroons" in 1960
Binghamton Bearcats, changed from "Colonials" in 2000. The school has had two previous nickname changes, but both coincided with changes of the school name. For those changes, see below.
Bloomfield Bears, changed from "Deacons" in 2014
Bowling Green Falcons, changed from the "Normals" in 1927.
Bradley Braves, changed from "Indians" in the 1930s
Brewton–Parker Barons, formerly the "Wildcats"
Brooklyn Bulldogs, known as the "Kingsmen" before 1994 and then the "Bridges" until 2010
Brown Bears, Senator Theodore F. Green suggested the nickname "Bears" in 1904, but the unofficial nickname "Bruins" became more prevalent starting in the 1930s. It was formerly used interchangeably with the official nickname, although some media disused "Bruins" after a minor league hockey team, the Providence Bruins, was established nearby in 1992.
Buffalo Bulls, formerly known as the "Bisons" (1915–1930), changed to distinguish from the city of Buffalo's identically named professional teams.
Butler Bulldogs — First known as "Christians", alluding to the school's original name of North Western Christian University (though it had become Butler University in 1877, before the school had an athletic program). The "Bulldogs" nickname was first used in 1919 by a cartoonist for Butler's student newspaper, and was soon officially adopted.
Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles, changed from "Diablos" in January 1981
Campbell Fighting Camels — Officially adopted near the start of 1934; originated from a misunderstood conversation early in the 20th century between university founder James Archibald Campbell and a visitor trying to encourage him after a fire destroyed almost all of the school's original buildings. Before the official adoption of "Camels" (with "Fighting" added later), "Hornets", "Campbells", and "Campbellites" were variously used.
Capital Crusaders, formerly the "Fighting Lutherans"
Carthage Firebirds — Known as "Redmen" before 2005; changed to "Red Men" and "Lady Reds" due to the NCAA's ruling on Native American-related nicknames. These nicknames were retired after the 2019–20 school year; the current nickname of "Firebirds" was adopted for all teams in February 2021.
Case Western Reserve Spartans, formed from the combination of Western Reserve and Case Institute of Technology. Western Reserve's nicknames were the Pioneers (1921—1927) and Red Cats (1928—1971). Case Institute of Technology's nicknames were the Scientists (1918—1938) and Rough Riders (1930—1971). In the 1930s, both of those names were used.
Cedar Crest Falcons, formerly the "Classics"
UCF Knights, reverted from "Golden Knights" from 1993 to 2007.
Central Michigan Chippewas, formerly the "Bearcats" (1927–1942), "Dragons" (1925–1927), and the "Normalites" (until 1925). The current name was chosen in honor of the local Saginaw tribe, and has remained in use with the tribe's consent.
Charleston Cougars, changed from "Maroons" in 1971. The school used its full name of "College of Charleston" in its athletic branding until the mid-2010s.
Chowan Hawks, reverted from "Braves" in 2006
Cincinnati Christian Eagles, formerly the "Golden Eagles". The school closed during the 2019 fall academic term.
Colgate Raiders, changed from "Red Raiders" in 2001
Colorado Buffaloes, changed from the "Silver and Gold" in 1934. They had also been known informally as the "Arapahoes", "Big Horns", "Frontiersmen", "Grizzlies", "Hornets", "Yellow Jackets", and (the football team) "Silver Helmets".
Colorado State Rams, referred to as "Aggies" before 1957
CSU–Pueblo ThunderWolves, changed from the "Indians" in 1995. The school name was changed from University of Southern Colorado in 2003.
Crossroads Knights, formerly the "Royals"
Cumberland Phoenix, changed from Bulldogs in 2016
Cumberlands Patriots, changed from the Cumberland "Indians" (note the singular "Cumberland") in 2002, when the school was known as Cumberland College. The school adopted its current name of the University of the Cumberlands in 2005.
Dartmouth Big Green, formerly "Indians" which was disused since the 1970s in favor of an existing nickname, "Big Green".
Davis & Elkins Senators, formerly the "Scarlet Hurricane"
Dean Bulldogs, formerly the "Red Devils"
Detroit Mercy Titans, originally the "Tigers"; changed in 1919 or 1924, depending on the source. The school was then known as the University of Detroit, and the change was presumably made to avoid confusion with Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers. While the school became the University of Detroit Mercy after a 1990 merger, the "Mercy" name was not added to the athletic branding until 2017.
Dickinson State Blue Hawks, changed from "Savages" in 1972
Dixie State Trailblazers, changed from "Rebels" to "Red Storm" in 2009, and "Trailblazers" in 2016. The university will change its name to Utah Tech University in July 2022, but the "Trailblazers" nickname will remain in place.
Duke Blue Devils, changed from "Blue and White" in 1923
D'Youville Saints, changed from "Spartans" in 2020
East Carolina Pirates, changed from the "Teachers" in 1934. The school was a teachers college until the 1940s.
Eastern Michigan Eagles, changed from the "Hurons" (1929–1991) due to pressure from the Michigan Department of Civil Rights; the teams had previously been known as the "Normalites" and the "Men from Ypsi".
Eastern Nazarene Lions, changed from the "Crusaders" in 2009
Eastern Washington Eagles, changed from "Savages" in 1973
Elon Phoenix, formerly the "Fighting Christians"
Endicott Gulls, formerly the "Power Gulls"
FIU Panthers, changed from "Sunblazers" to "Golden Panthers" in 1987 and "Panthers" in 2010.
Fort Lewis Skyhawks, known first as the "Beavers", changed to "Aggies" in the early 1930s, changed to "Raiders" in 1963, and adopted current nickname in 1994
Furman Paladins, football team changed from "Hurricane" in 1961, baseball team changed from "Hornets" in 1961, basketball team has been "Paladins" all along.
George Washington Colonials, changed from "Hatchetites" in 1928
Georgia Southern Eagles, formerly the Blue Tide (1924–1941) and Professors (1941–1959)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, "Yellowjackets" (as one word) first came into use after it appeared in the Atlanta Constitution in 1905; other nicknames included "Techs" (discontinued c. 1910), "Engineers", "Blacksmiths" (1902–1904), and "Golden Tornado" (1917–1929)
Hampton Pirates and Lady Pirates, known as the "Seasiders" from 1916 to 1932
Hanover Panthers, formerly the "Hilltoppers"
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine, known as "Fighting Deans" before 1923; the school's nickname was "Rainbows" from 1923 through 2000, when the university allowed all of its athletic teams to adopt their own individual nicknames: the baseball team retained the "Rainbows" nickname; the men's basketball, swimming and diving, and tennis teams adopted "Rainbow Warriors"; the football, men's golf, and men's volleyball teams adopted "Warriors"; and all women's teams adopted the nickname "Rainbow Wahine". In 2013, the university announced that all men's teams would become "Rainbow Warriors" effective with the start of the 2013–14 school year. In one more recently added women's sport, beach volleyball, the official nickname remains "Rainbow Wahine", but that team has mostly deprecated it in favor of "SandBows".
Hawaii Pacific Sharks, changed from "Sea Warriors" in 2014
Hillsdale Chargers, changed from "Dales" in 1968
Hofstra Pride, formerly the "Flying Dutchmen"
Huron Screaming Eagles, known as the "Scalpers", which was unofficially dropped in 1973; the "Tribe" then came into usage, was officially adopted in 1975, and remained until about 1997
Husson Eagles, formerly the "Braves"
Ithaca Bombers, formerly the "Blue Team", "Blues", "Blue and Gold", "Collegians" and "Seneca Streeters." The name was changed to the "Cayugas" by a student vote in 1937. The origin of the nickname "Bombers" is unclear, but the first known reference was in a December 17, 1938 issue of the Rochester Times-Union article on the basketball team. Some faculty have expressed reservations of the current nickname's martial connotations.
IUP Crimson Hawks, changed from the "Indians" in 2006
IUPUI Jaguars, changed from the "Metros" in 1997 upon moving to NCAA Division I.
Iowa State Cyclones, changed from "Cardinals" in 1895
Jacksonville State Gamecocks – When the school was known as Jacksonville State Normal School, the nickname was Eagle Owls. In 1946, by which time the school had become Jacksonville State Teachers College, a group of fans wanted a mascot more emblematic of Southern American culture. Another group of fans supposedly wanted a change in school colors from the original blue and gold. According to local lore, both camps got their wish; Jacksonville State's nickname became Gamecocks in 1947, with teams wearing the red and white still in use today.
Johnson Royals, changed from the "Preachers" and "Lady Evangels" to the "Royals" in 2013
Juniata Eagles, changed from "Indians" in 1994
Kansas City Roos – As part of the 2019 rebranding of the University of Missouri–Kansas City athletic program from "UMKC" to "Kansas City", the nickname was shortened from the historic "Kangaroos" to "Roos" (which had been in use alongside "Kangaroos" for many years). Only the athletic program was rebranded; the university name remains unchanged, and "UMKC" is still used for academic branding purposes.
Kansas State Wildcats, changed from the "Aggies" and the "Farmers" in 1915, before reverting to the old nicknames that same year, when the school was known as the Kansas State Agricultural College. It was changed permanently in 1920. The school changed its name to Kansas State University later.
Kent State Golden Flashes, changed from the "Silver Foxes" in 1927
Kentucky Wildcats, formerly "Blue and White" through 1909
Keuka Wolves, known as the "Storm" until 2014 and as the "Wolfpack" from 2014 to 2016, a nickname changed upon threat of legal action from North Carolina State University
Knox Prairie Fire, known as the "Old Siwash" or "Siwash" until 1993
Lander Bearcats, formerly the "Senators"
Lehigh Mountain Hawks, changed from the "Engineers" in 1995; also previously known as the "Brown and White"
Lincoln Christian Red Lions, formerly "Preachers" (men) and "Angels" (women).
Long Beach State Beach (or "The Beach"), officially known as 49ers before 2020–21, although the school had been transitioning to "The Beach" for several years. The baseball team continues to use Dirtbags.
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, changed from the "Bulldogs" to Raging Cajuns in the early 1960s. The "g" was dropped from the end of the first word later.
Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks, changed from the "Indians" in 2006
Loyola Ramblers, changed from "Grandees" around 1926; the earlier nickname was selected in a contest held by the student newspaper but failed to catch on.
Maranatha Baptist Sabercats – Changed from "Crusaders" in 2014.
Marquette Golden Eagles, changed from the "Warriors" in 1994, which had been used at least since 1960. Earlier nicknames included "Hilltoppers" and "Avalanche".
Marshall Thundering Herd, made official in the mid-1960s, although it was in unofficial use since the 1930s alongside the nickname the "Big Green".
Maryland Terrapins, made official in 1932, although in unofficial use earlier; formerly the "Old Liners", and before that, the "Aggies" and "Farmers" when the school was known as Maryland Agricultural College.
Maryville Scots, formerly the "Highlanders"
MCLA Trailblazers, formerly the "Mohawks"
McMurry War Hawks, known as the "Indians" until that nickname was dropped in 2006
Memphis Tigers, originally adopted in 1915 when the school was known as the West Tennessee State Normal School, but changed to "Teachers" and "Tutors" when the school name was changed to West Tennessee State Teachers College. In 1939, the Tigers nickname was reintroduced. The school later changed its name to Memphis State College and then the University of Memphis.
Miami RedHawks, changed from the "Redskins" in 1997, the team had previously been known as the "Big Reds", the "Reds and Whites", the "Red-Skinned Warriors", and the "Miami Boys".
Michigan State Spartans, changed from "Aggies" in 1925, which had been used contemporaneously with the unofficial nicknames of the "Fighting Farmers" and "Farmers".
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, adopted in 1934 to replace a "wide range of names"
Midwestern State Mustangs, changed from "Indians" in November 2005
Milwaukee Panthers, changed from "Cardinals" in 1964, when the school was branded athletically as "Wisconsin–Milwaukee". There was an earlier nickname change, but that coincided with a merger that resulted in a change of the school name. For that change, see below.
Minnesota State Mavericks, changed from "Indians" on July 1, 1977, when the school was known as "Mankato State".
Mississippi State Bulldogs, changed from "Maroons" in 1961, they were known as the "Aggies" under the school changed its name from Mississippi A&M in 1932.
Montclair State Red Hawks, changed from "Indians" in 1989
Morningside Mustangs, changed from "Chiefs" in 1998; known as the "Maroons" from about 1910 until the late 1950s
Multnomah Lions, formerly the "Ambassadors"
Murray State Racers, changed from "Thoroughbreds" in 1961. However, the baseball team, which had just bought new uniforms before the change was announced, asked to defer its nickname change for a year. Reaction to this move was favorable enough that the baseball team continued to use "Thoroughbreds" until adopting "Racers" in 2014.
Nebraska Cornhuskers, adopted in 1900, the teams had formerly been known as the "Antelopes", "Bugeaters", "Old Gold Knights", "Rattlesnake Boys", and "Treeplanters"
Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves, changed from the "Plainsmen" in 2000
Nevada Wolf Pack, adopted in 1923, they had previously been known as the "Sagebrushers" and "Sage Hens"
Newberry Wolves, adopted in 2010 to replace "Indians", which had been dropped two years earlier. The teams had competed without a nickname in the interim.
North Carolina State Wolfpack, adopted in 1922, previous nicknames had included the "Aggies", "Farmers", "Techs", and "Red Terrors"
North Dakota Fighting Hawks – First known as the "Flickertails" until 1930, at which time "Fighting Sioux" was adopted. After major controversy over this nickname in the early 21st century, "Fighting Sioux" was retired in 2012. The school then went without a nickname for three years, as the state passed a law prohibiting the selection of a new nickname until 2015. In November of that year, following two rounds of fan voting, a new nickname of "Fighting Hawks" was chosen and immediately adopted.
North Georgia Saints and Lady Saints — The first sports teams at what was then North Georgia College & State University were men's teams known as "Cadets", a nod to the school's status as a senior military college. When basketball became the first women's sport, that team was initially known as the "Golddiggers", referencing the school's location in the old gold-mining town of Dahlonega. By the late 1970s, the athletic program had settled on "Saints" and "Lady Saints". NGCSU no longer exists under that name, as it was merged into the University of North Georgia in 2013 with the new nickname of "Nighthawks" (see below).
North Greenville Crusaders, formerly the "Mounties"
North Texas Mean Green, formerly known as the "Eagles" (1922–1966), there are conflicting accounts on the origin of the nickname.
Northeastern State RiverHawks, dropped Redmen in May 2006, adopted RiverHawks on November 14, 2006
Northern Illinois Huskies, adopted in 1940, previous names had included "Cardinals", "Evansmen", "Northerners", "Profs", and "Teachers"
Northwest Christian Beacons, formerly the "Crusaders"
Northwestern Wildcats, changed from the "Purple" in 1924
Notre Dame Fighting Irish, officially adopted in 1927, although it had been in use much earlier. Other nicknames included the "Catholics" in the 1880s and 1890s, and the "Ramblers" in the 1920s.
Ohio Bobcats, replaced the "Green and White" in 1925
Oklahoma Sooners, replaced the "Rough Riders" and "Boomers" in 1908
Oklahoma City Stars, formerly "Goldbugs" prior to 1946 and the "Chiefs" thereafter
Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls — Oklahoma A&M used the nickname of the "Agriculturalists" in the 1890s, which was shortened to "Aggies" and "Farmers". "Tigers" was briefly used as well, but proved unpopular. In 1924, the media began referring to the teams as the "Cowboys" and it was later officially adopted.
Ole Miss Rebels, changed from the "Flood" in 1935 because of the negative association with natural disasters, most notably the 1927 flood that devastated the state's Delta region.
Omaha Mavericks, adopted in the summer of 1971, previously known as "Indians" from 1939 to 1971 and "Cardinals" before 1939.
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, formerly the "Titans"
Oregon Ducks, formerly the "Webfoots." "Ducks" introduced in the 1940s and nicknames were used interchangeably until the 1970s; "Ducks" officially adopted in 1978.
Oregon State Beavers, previously known as the "Aggies" and then the "Orangemen". The yearbook was named The Beaver in 1916, which later led to the athletics teams' adoption of the nickname.
Pacific Lutheran Lutes, formerly the "Gladiators"
Presbyterian Blue Hose — Officially changed from "Blue Stockings" c. 1954, though sportswriters had used "Hose" interchangeably with "Stockings" since the turn of the 20th century.
Quinnipiac Bobcats, changed from the "Braves" in 2002
RPI Engineers, formerly the "Bachelors" and, from 1995 to 2009, the "Red Hawks"
Richmond Spiders, changed from the "Colts" in 1894.
Rio Grande RedStorm, changed from the "Redmen" and "Redwomen" in 2008.
Ripon Red Hawks, changed from "Redmen" in 1994
Rutgers Scarlet Knights, changed from the "Queensmen" in 1955
St. Bonaventure Bonnies, changed from the "Brown Indians" and "Brown Squaws" in 1979
St. John's Red Storm, changed from the "Redmen" in 1995 for gender and cultural considerations. The university claims the old name did not refer to American Indians, but to the school color, a bright cardinal red.
Saint Leo Lions, formerly the "Monarchs"
Saint Mary's Cardinals, changed from "Redmen" during the 1989–90 season
San Diego State Aztecs, replaced the "Staters" and "Professors" in 1925
San Jose State Spartans, adopted in 1925; prior nicknames included the "Daniels", the "Teachers", the "Pedagogues", the "Normals", and the "Normalites"
Santa Clara Broncos, adopted in 1923; prior nicknames included the "Missionites", the "Prunepickers", the "Friars", the "Missions", and the "Padres" The school changed its name from the "University of Santa Clara" to "Santa Clara University" in 1985.
Seattle Redhawks, formerly the "Chieftains"
Seton Hill Griffins, formerly the "Spirit"
Simpson Storm, changed from the "Redmen and Lady Reds" in 1992
Sioux Falls Cougars, changed from "Braves" in 1978
Sonoma State Seawolves, changed from "Cossacks" in 1978
Southeast Missouri State Redhawks, known as the "Indians" and "Otahkians" before 2004
Southeastern Oklahoma State Savage Storm, changed from "Savages" in 2006
Southeastern Fire, formerly the "Crusaders"
South Florida Bulls, shortened from "Brahman Bulls" in the mid-1980s
Southern Miss Golden Eagles, adopted in 1972, the school had several previous nicknames, including "Normalites", "Yellow Jackets", "Confederates", and "Southerners"
Southwestern Christian Eagles, formerly the "Moundbuilders"
Southern Illinois Salukis, formerly known at the "Maroons" from 1913 to 1951
Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm, formerly the "Redskins"
Spalding Golden Eagles, formerly the "Pelicans"
Springfield Pride, changed from "Chiefs" in 1996
Susquehanna River Hawks, changed from "Crusaders" in 2016
Stanford Cardinal, adopted in 1981, formerly known as the "Indians" (1930–1972) and the plural "Cardinals" (1972–1981)
Stonehill Skyhawks, changed from the "Chieftains"
Stony Brook Seawolves, adopted in 1994; previously known as "Soundmen" or "Baymen" (1950s), Warriors (1960–1966), and "Patriots"/"Lady Patriots" (1966–1994)
SUNY Canton Kangaroos, formerly the "Northmen" and "Northstars"
Syracuse Orange, changed from the "Orangemen" and "Orangewomen" in 2004
Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs, changed from Moccasins in 1997.
TCU Horned Frogs, adopted in 1915, formerly known as the "Christians"
Texas Tech Red Raiders, changed from "Matadors" (1925–1932), which had been inspired by the campus's Spanish architecture.
Toledo Rockets, adopted in 1923 by sportswriters who shortened it from "Skyrockets", coined by a student in the press box for a football game. Writers had previously called the football team the "Blue and Gold" and "Munies".
Troy Trojans, reverted from "Red Wave" in 1973. Troy had been known as first the Bulldogs" and then the "Teachers" between 1909 and 1920, the "Trojans" from 1920 to 1931, and the "Red Wave" from 1931 to 1973.
Tulane Green Wave, known as the "Olive and Blue" from 1893 to 1919, and referred to as the "Greenbacks" by the student-run The Tulane Weekly in 1919. Became known as the "Green Wave" from 1920 after the song "The Rolling Green Wave" published in the Tulane Hullabaloo.
Tulsa Golden Hurricane, adopted in 1922, formerly known as the "Orange and Black", "Kendallites", "Presbyterians", "Tigers", "Tulsans", and "Yellow Jackets".
UCLA Bruins, adopted in 1928, formerly known as the "Cubs" until 1923, in reference to the school's connection to the University of California Golden Bears. Known as the "Grizzlies" from 1923 until 1928, when UCLA joined the Pacific Coast Conference, which already included the Montana Grizzlies.
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, changed in 1936 from Roadrunners. Football coach Theodore "Spud" Harder requested a new name when he took over in 1934. A student vote settled on "Gauchos" in 1936, based on the 1927 film The Gaucho)
UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs, changed in 1986 by student referendum from "Sea Lions", which had been used since the school began sponsoring NCAA athletics in 1981.
UConn Huskies, officially adopted as the nickname in 1934; they had previous been unofficially known as the "Aggies" and the "Statesmen". "UConn", long used as a short form for the school's formal name of "University of Connecticut", became the official athletic brand in 2013–14.
UMass Minutemen, changed from the "Redmen" and "Redwomen" in 1972. According to the university, the old nickname referred to the uniforms worn by the athletic teams, but it was changed nonetheless out of sensitivity to American Indians.
USC Trojans, replaced the "Methodists" and "Wesleyans" in 1912
USP Devils, formerly the "Red Devils"
UT Martin Skyhawks, changed from "Pacers" in 1995
Utah Utes, formerly used "Redskins" nickname simultaneously with "Utes" nickname but discontinued using "Redskins" in 1972
UVA Wise Cavaliers – Formerly nicknamed "Highland Cavaliers"; dropped "Highland" in 2017.
Valparaiso Beacons – Dropped the longtime "Crusaders" nickname in February 2021 due to negative associations with violence, as well as use of "crusader" imagery by certain hate groups. The new nickname of "Beacons" was announced on August 10 of that year.
VCU Rams – The "Rams" nickname was inherited from Richmond Professional Institute, one of the two institutions that merged in 1968 to form the current Virginia Commonwealth University. From 1948 to 1963, RPI's nickname was "Green Devils", reflecting the school's affiliation with The College of William & Mary. RPI and several other institutions were separated from W&M in 1962, and RPI adopted "Rams" a year later.
Virginia Tech Hokies, gradually transitioned from the original nickname of the "Fighting Gobblers"
Washington Huskies, adopted February 3, 1922; formerly the "Sun Dodgers" (1919–1921) and very briefly the "Vikings" in December 1921
Wayne State Warriors, known as the "Tartars" from 1927 to 1999
Western Michigan Broncos, changed from "Hilltoppers" in 1939
Westminster Griffins, formerly the "Parsons"
Wheaton Thunder, changed from "Crusaders" in 2000
Widener Pride, changed from "Pioneers" in 2006
William & Mary Tribe, formerly the "Indians" (1917–1977) and "Orange and White" (1893–1916)
Wisconsin–La Crosse Eagles, known as Indians from 1937 to 1989
Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks, changed from Quakers in 1958
Changes of women's team nicknames only
Austin Peay Governors – Historically, women's teams had been "Lady Govs", but all teams became "Governors" no later than the 2015–16 school year.
Baylor Bears – Historically, women's teams had been "Lady Bears". By the end of the 2010s, most teams had dropped "Lady" from the nickname, and the last three holdouts of basketball, soccer, and volleyball did the same for the 2021–22 school year.
Colorado Buffaloes — Women's teams were the "Lady Buffs" until 1993, when the school announced it would adopt the men's nickname for all teams.
Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds — Women's teams were the "Zias" from the establishment of women's sports at the school in the 1970s until 2015, when the school announced it would adopt the men's nickname for all teams.
Kentucky Wildcats — Women's teams, except for gymnastics, were the "Lady Kats" until 1995, when the school announced it would adopt the men's nickname for all teams. The gymnastics team continued to use its historic nickname of "Gym Kats" for a number of years before abandoning it in favor of Wildcats.
New Mexico State Aggies — Women's athletic teams were known as the "Roadrunners" until 2000, following a vote by female athletes to adopt the same nickname as the men's teams.
Tarleton State Texans — The school's first varsity women's teams played under the men's nickname of "Texans" in the 1968–69 school year, but female athletes expressed a desire for a distinctive nickname, and the women's nickname was changed the following year—although the spellings of "Texanns", "Tex-Anns", and "TexAnns" were all used before the "TexAnns" spelling was adopted in 1972. During the 2018–19 school year, two players and a student manager in the women's basketball program began a campaign to return the women's nickname to "Texans", and after receiving overwhelming support from other female athletes, the school approved the change effective in 2019–20.
Tennessee Volunteers — In November 2014, the university announced that after the 2014–15 school year, only women's basketball would retain the Lady Volunteers nickname. At that time, all other women's teams became simply Volunteers. This change was reversed during the 2017–18 school year, with all women's teams once again allowed to use "Lady Volunteers" if they so wish.
Washburn Ichabods — Women's teams were known as "Lady Blues" until 2013, when the school announced that women's teams would adopt the men's nickname.
Western Illinois Leathernecks —Women's teams were known as "Westerwinds" until 2009, when they adopted the men's nickname of Leathernecks.
A number of schools historically used the "Lady" prefix for all women's teams, but now have a policy of using "Lady" only in sports that have both men's and women's teams. Schools that have this policy include:
LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers
Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders
As a result of a school name change or merger
Binghamton Bearcats – Before adopting its current nickname in 2000, the school now legally known as the State University of New York at Binghamton and branded since 1992 as Binghamton University changed its nickname twice, each time corresponding with a change in the school's name:
Originally, the school was a satellite of Syracuse University known as Triple Cities College, and had no nickname. When it became independent from Syracuse in 1950, it adopted the name of Harpur College and the nickname "Donkeys".
When Harpur joined the State University of New York system in 1965 and adopted its current legal name, the school nickname changed to "Colonials".
Case Western Reserve Spartans – Before the schools merged, Case Institute of Technology used the nicknames of the "Scientists" (1918–1938) and the "Rough Riders (1930–1971). Western Reserve was known as the "Pioneers" (1921–1928) and the "Red Cats" (1928–1971). While the schools merged in 1967, the undergraduate student bodies (and athletic departments) were separate until 1971, and during the transition, Western Reserve used the athletic identity of its undergraduate arm, Adelbert College.
Cleveland State Vikings – Fenn College used the nickname of the "Foxes" until the school was renamed in 1965.
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers – When Coastal was founded in 1954 as a junior college, the school's nickname was "Trojans". It adopted its current nickname shortly after becoming a part of the University of South Carolina in 1960, due to a desire for a nickname more compatible with the "Gamecocks" of its parent. The nickname remained even after Coastal became an independent institution in 1993.
Colorado State Rams – Colorado A&M used the nickname of the "Aggies".
LIU Sharks – Established in 2019 when Long Island University merged its two previous NCAA athletic programs—the Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and Division II LIU Post Pioneers. Only the athletic programs merged; the Brooklyn and Post campuses are separately accredited and remain in operation. The Sharks inherited the Division I membership of the Brooklyn campus.
Maryland Terrapins – Maryland Agricultural College used the nickname of the "Aggies" and the "Farmers". The school was renamed Maryland State College in 1916 and the University of Maryland in 1920.
Michigan State Spartans – Michigan Agricultural College used the nickname of the "Aggies" alongside unofficial nicknames of the "Fighting Farmers" and "Farmers" until 1925.
Milwaukee Panthers – The institution through which the current University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee traces its history, originally the Wisconsin State Normal School and after several name changes Wisconsin State College–Milwaukee, used "Green Gulls" as its nickname until 1956. At that time, it merged with the University of Wisconsin's graduate extension campus in Milwaukee to form UW–Milwaukee, with the nickname changing to "Cardinals".
Mississippi State Bulldogs – Mississippi A&M changed its nickname from the "Aggies" to the "Maroons" when the school was renamed Mississippi State College in 1932. In 1961, the school was renamed Mississippi State University and the nickname was changed to the "Bulldogs".
NC State Wolfpack – North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (North Carolina A&M) was known as the "Aggies" or "Farmers". The school changed its name to the current North Carolina State University in 1917.
North Georgia Nighthawks – In January 2013, North Georgia College & State University, nicknamed "Saints" and "Lady Saints", was merged with Gainesville State College, a two-year technical school with no athletic program, to create the University of North Georgia. The new school adopted the nickname of "Nighthawks" for all teams.
UConn Huskies – Connecticut Agricultural College used the nickname "Aggies". The school was renamed Connecticut State College in 1933, and the following year, the "Huskies" nickname was adopted.
UMass Lowell River Hawks – The University of Lowell, itself the product of a 1971 merger between Lowell State College and the Lowell Technological Institute, used "Chiefs" as its nickname before it was absorbed into the University of Massachusetts system in 1991.
UT Southern FireHawks – In 2021, Martin Methodist College, nicknamed "RedHawks", sold its campus to the University of Tennessee system, becoming the University of Tennessee Southern.
UTRGV Vaqueros – In November 2014, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, which began full operation in July 2015 with the merger of the University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA) and University of Texas at Brownsville, announced that the nickname of the new school would be Vaqueros. The pre-merger UTPA Broncs became the UTRGV athletic program after the merger.
See also
Native American mascot controversy
List of college sports team nicknames
References
Nickname changes
College sports culture in the United States
United S
College |
63259392 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern-Oriented%20Software%20Architecture | Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture | Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture is a series of software engineering books describing software design patterns.
POSA1
Architectural patterns
Layers
Pipes and filters
Blackboard
Broker
Model–View–Controller
Presentation–Abstraction–Control
Design patterns
Whole–Part
Master–Slave
Proxy
Command Processor
View Handler
Forwarder-Receiver
Client–Dispatcher–Server
Publisher–subscriber
POSA2
Service access and configuration patterns
Wrapper Facade
Component Configurator
Interceptor
Extension interface
Event handling patterns
Reactor
Proactor
Asynchronous Completion Token
Acceptor-Connector
Synchronization patterns
Scoped Locking
Strategized Locking
Thread-Safe Interface
Double-checked locking
Concurrency patterns
Active object
Monitor Object
Half-Sync/Half-Async
Leader/Followers
Thread-Specific Storage
POSA3
Resource acquisition
Lookup
Lazy acquisition
Eager acquisition
Resource lifecycle
Caching
Pooling
Coordinator
Resource Lifecycle Manager
Resource release
Leasing
Evictor
POSA4
Software architecture
Domain model
Layers
Model–View–Controller
Presentation–Abstraction–Control
Microkernel
Reflection
Pipes and filters
Shared repository
Blackboard
Domain object
Distribution Infrastructure
Message Channel
Message endpoint
Message translator
Message route
Publisher–subscriber
Broker
Client proxy
Requestor
Invoker
Client request handler
server request handler
Adaptation and execution
Bridge
Object Adapter
Chain of responsitiblity
Interpreter
Interceptor
Visitor
Decorator
Execute-Around Object
Template method
Strategy
Null Object
Wrapper Facade
Declarative component configuration
Resource management
Container
Component Configurator
Object manager
Lookup
Virtual Proxy
Lifecycle callback
Task coordinator
Resource pool
Resource cache
Lazy Acquisition
Eager Acquisition
Partial Acquisition
Activator
Evictor
Leasing
Automated Garbage Collection
Counting Handle
Abstract Factory
Builder
Factory method
Disposal Method
Database access
Database Access Layer
Data mapper
Row Data Gateway
Table Data Gateway
Active Record
POSA5
1996 non-fiction books
2000 non-fiction books
2004 non-fiction books
2007 non-fiction books
Software development books
Software design patterns |
54606452 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20computing%20mascots | List of computing mascots | This is a list of computing mascots. A mascot is any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity. In case of computing mascots, they either represent software, hardware, or any project or collective entity behind them.
A
Adiumy, a cartoon duck, is the mascot of Adium, a free and open-source instant messaging client for macOS.
Amanda the Panda, a cartoon panda, is the mascot of Window Maker, a free and open-source window manager for the X Window System.
B
Blinky, a cartoon fish, is the mascot of FreeDOS, a free and open-source DOS implementation for IBM PC compatible computers.
The BSD Daemon, a cartoon demon, is the mascot of BSD, a free and open-source Unix operating system derivative that also has many derivations out of itself.
Buggie, a cartoon anthropomorphic bug, is the mascot of Bugzilla, a free and open-source web-based general-purpose bugtracker and testing tool.
C
Camelia, a cartoon bug with butterfly-like wings, is the mascot of Raku.
CowDuck, a cartoon hybrid with the head of a cow and the body of a duck is the mascot of TerminusDB.
D
DotNet Bot (typically stylized as "dotnet bot" or "dotnet-bot") is the official community mascot of the .NET free and open source software framework.
Duke, a stylized, unspecified creature, is the mascot of Java, a system for developing application software and deploying it in a cross-platform computing environment.
E
elePHPant, a cartoon elephant, is the mascot of PHP, a server-side scripting language designed primarily for web development.
eMule, a free and open-source peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows, is represented by a cartoon mule of the same name.
F
Freedo, a cartoon anthropomorphic penguin, is the mascot of Linux-libre, a free and open-source operating system kernel derived from Linux kernel, packaged by GNU to have all the proprietary components removed.
The crab Ferris is the unofficial mascot of the Rust language.
G
Gavroche, a cartoon goblin, is the mascot of GNU MediaGoblin, a free and open-source decentralized server software for hosting and sharing digital media.
Geeko, a stylized chameleon, is the mascot of SUSE Linux, a Linux-based free and open-source computer operating system family.
Glenda, the Plan 9 Bunny, a cartoon rabbit, is the mascot of Plan 9 from Bell Labs, a free and open-source distributed operating system that manages all computing resources through its file system rather than specialized interfaces.
GNU – or just the drawing "GNU head", an anthropomorphic wildebeest head—is the mascot—or just the logo—of GNU, a free and open-source operating system and an extensive collection of computer software; it is also the mascot of GNU Project, a free-software, mass-collaboration project.
Gooey, a cartoon octopus, is the mascot of WebGUI, a free and open-source content management system.
The free and open-source Go programming language is represented by a gopher.
H
Hexley, a cartoon platypus, is the mascot of Darwin.
K
Kandalf, a cartoon wizard, is the former mascot of KDE.
Kate the Cyber Woodpecker, a cartoon robotic woodpecker, is the mascot of Kate, a free and open-source advanced text editor for software developers.
Kiki the Cyber Squirrel, a cartoon anthropomorphic robotic squirrel, is the mascot of Krita, a free and open-source raster graphics editor designed for digital painting and animation.
Kitty, a cartoon anthropomorphic cat, created by Eric W. Schwartz, is the mascot of AROS Research Operating System, a free and open-source multimedia centric implementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 APIs.
Konqi is the primary mascot of KDE, an international community that develops free and open-source software, and KDE Projects, software they have developed, including KDE Plasma workspace, KDE Frameworks, and the software foundation of other KDE Applications. A number of other dragons also exist, such as Katie, associated with KDE Women's Project.
L
Lenny, a penguin with blue hair, who is the mascot for Lubuntu.
Larry, a hand-drawn cow, is one of Gentoo's unofficial mascots.
The Lisp mascot is an quadruped alien with more than four eyes and a single arm extending from the nose
M
Moby Dock, a cartoon whale that hauls shipping containers on its back, is the mascot of Docker, a set of platform as a service (PaaS) products.
Mozilla, a cartoon anthropomorphic lizard and later a stylized tyrannosaurus rex, is the retired mascot of Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports and leads Mozilla, a free-software community that developed Firefox, a free and open-source web browser and many related projects.
O
Octocat, an anthropomorphized cat with five octopus-like arms is GitHub's mascot.
P
The Apache Pig, an anthropomorphic pig, is the mascot of Apache Pig.
Puffy, a cartoon pufferfish, is the mascot of OpenBSD, a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from BSD, dedicated to security and stability features.
Purple Pidgin, a cartoon pigeon, is the mascot of Pidgin, a free and open-source multi-platform instant messaging client.
R
The Raft consensus algorithm mascot is a log raft with a face. Created by Andrea Ruygt, and made a vector by Diego Ongaro
The Rustacean is the mascot of the Rust programming language.
Rocky Raccoon, a cartoon raccoon, is the mascot of MINIX 3, a free and open-source project to create a small, high availability, high functioning Unix-like operating system.
T
Tux, a cartoon anthropomorphic penguin, is the mascot of Linux kernel, a free and open-source monolithic Unix-like computer operating system kernel that has been included in many OS distributions.
W
Wilber is the mascot of GIMP, a free and open-source raster graphics editor designed for image editing, drawing, image format conversion and others.
Wombats are associated with DATATRIEVE, being adopted as the mascot of its product group. References where included in the help system for the product, and a graphic demonstration using the "PLOT WOMBAT" command.
X
Xue, a stylized mouse, is the mascot of Xfce, a free and open-source desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems that aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use.
Z
Zero the Ziguana and Ziggy the Ziguana are the two official mascots of the programming language Zig.
Znurt the Flying Saucer is one of Gentoo Linux's unofficial mascots.
See also
List of video game mascots
OS-tan
References
Mascots |
11071487 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon%20%28software%29 | Babylon (software) | Babylon is a computer dictionary and translation program developed by the Israeli company Babylon Software Ltd. based in the city of Or Yehuda. The company was established in 1997 by the Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Ovadia. Its IPO took place ten years later. It is considered a part of Israel's Download Valley, a cluster of software companies monetizing "free" software downloads through adware. Babylon includes in-house proprietary dictionaries, as well as community-created dictionaries and glossaries. It is a tool used for translation and conversion of currencies, measurements and time, and for obtaining other contextual information. The program also uses a text-to-speech agent, so users hear the proper pronunciation of words and text. Babylon has developed 36 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages. In 2008–2009, Babylon reported earnings of 50 million NIS through its collaboration with Google.
Between 2010 and 2013, Babylon became infamous for demonstrating questionable behavior typical of malware: A Babylon Toolbar bundled with Babylon and other software, has been widely identified as a browser hijacker that is very easy to install inadvertently and unnecessarily difficult to remove. This eventually led to Google terminating its agreement with Babylon Ltd. in 2013.
History
In 1995, Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Ovadia began a project for an online English–Hebrew dictionary which would not interrupt the reading process. As a result, Babylon Ltd. was founded in 1997 and launched the first version of Babylon. On 25 September 1997, the company filed a patent for text recognition and translation. In 1998, a year following its launch date, Babylon had two million users, mostly in Germany and Brazil, growing from 420,000 to 2.5 million users in the course of that year. In the same year, Formula Systems, headed by Dan Goldstein, acquired Mashov Computers and became the largest shareholder in the company. By 2000, the product had over 4 million users. In the spring of 2000, Babylon Ltd. failed to raise $20 million in a private placement and lost NIS 15 million. Further stress came with the collapse of the Dot-com bubble. In 2001, Babylon Ltd. continued shedding money, with the company costing its parent company Formula Vision NIS 4.7 million.
Since 2007, Babylon Ltd. () has been a publicly traded company. Its IPO took place in February 2007; Israeli businessman Noam Lanir purchased controlling interests in the company for $10.5 million, sharing management with second majority shareholder Reed Elsevier and the Company founder Amnon Ovadia. According to Globes magazine in January 2011, Lanir received an offer for his stake from a foreign private equity fund that valued the company at NIS 248 million (approximately 70 million dollars).
In 2008–2009, Babylon reported earnings of NIS 50 million through its collaboration with Google. In 2010, Google Ireland signed an extended cooperation agreement with Babylon to provide it with online search and pay-per-click advertising services.
In 2011, Babylon was named the seventh most popular website in Libya, the eighth in Algeria and the eleventh in Tunisia.
According to Globes magazine, Noam Lanir, who acquired control of Babylon for NIS 20 million, made a paper profit of NIS 200 million on his investment in 2012. According to the same source, the Babylon website achieved an Alexa ranking of 45 in April 2012.
In October 2014 the translation business was purchased by Babylon Software Ltd.
Product features
A single click on any text using the right mouse button or combination of the right mouse button and a keyboard modifier, and the Babylon window appears providing a translation and definition of the clicked term. Babylon is a tool used for translation and conversion of currencies, measurements and time, and for obtaining other contextual information. Babylon has a patented OCR technology and a single-click activation that works in any Microsoft Windows application, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel, Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader. When activated, Babylon opens a small popup window that displays the translation or definition. To solve the incompatibility problem of Babylon OCR browsers extension; users can benefit from Capture2Text free app version 3.9 (only 3.9v) which is compatible with Babylon 8 or another version. While dragging its capture box in any text from any browsers then a pop-up box appears and Babylon could easily grasp it. Babylon provides full text translation, full Web page and full document translation in many languages and supports integration with Microsoft Office. Babylon enables the translation of Microsoft Word documents and plain text files. It offers results from a database of over 1,700 sources in over 75 languages.
Dictionaries and encyclopedias
Babylon includes its in-house proprietary dictionaries, community-created dictionaries and glossaries (UGC), which include general and technical dictionaries, language and monolingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias and lexicons in a multitude of languages. They are indexed in 400 categories covering the arts, business, computers, health, law, entertainment, sports and so on.
The program also uses a text-to-speech agent so users hear the proper pronunciation of words and text. Babylon Ltd. has developed 36 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages (English, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish) that are free of charge to users of the software. These dictionaries comprise between 60,000 and 200,000 terms, phrases, acronyms and abbreviations and are enabled with a morphological engine which facilitates recognition of all inflected forms of single words and phrases, provides all forms of terms that include prefixes and extensions and supplies a solution for all formats of writing. Babylon's Linguistic Department is responsible for the extensive content and information database which is a significant component of Babylon's Product.
Malware issues
On 7 August 2010, Microsoft antivirus products identified the software application as adware (identified as "Adware: Win32/Babylon") due to potentially intrusive behavior. Sixteen days later, on 23 August 2010, Microsoft announced that Babylon Ltd. had modified the program and that it was no longer categorized as adware.
In 2011, Download.com started bundling the Babylon Toolbar with open-source packages such as Nmap. Gordon Lyon, the developer of Nmap, criticized the decision. The vice-president of Download.com, Sean Murphy, released an apology: "The bundling of this software was a mistake on our part and we apologize to the user and developer communities for the unrest it caused."
In 2012 the Babylon search toolbar was identified as a browser hijacker that, while very easy to install inadvertently, is unnecessarily difficult to remove afterwards. The toolbar is listed as an unwanted application by anti-spyware software such as Stopzilla or Spybot – Search & Destroy. Many users, trying to uninstall Babylon, have searched for help on different support forums. The toolbar tends to install itself onto computers as an add-on with other software and changes users' home page to the Babylon search engine, adds the search engine to the computer and sets itself as the default. It changes browser preferences such as the user's home page and search engine, changes that can be very difficult to reverse.
On 29 October 2013, Google notified Babylon that it did not intend to renew its cooperation agreement between the two companies, which terminated on 30 November 2013. Google said that complaints had been received from Google Chrome users, claiming that the Babylon toolbar damages the browser's user experience. According to Babylon, Google may have reconsidered the decision during 2014. Since that point Babylon Software no longer distributes any toolbars or offers any 3rd party software.
See also
Anki
GoldenDict
Comparison of machine translation applications
Download Valley
References
External links
Dictionary software
Machine translation
Israeli brands
Software companies of Israel
Companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange |
50825018 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigreturn-oriented%20programming | Sigreturn-oriented programming | Sigreturn-oriented programming (SROP) is a computer security exploit technique that allows an attacker to execute code in presence of security measures such as non-executable memory and code signing. It was presented for the first time at the 35th Security and Privacy IEEE conference in 2014 where it won the best student paper award. This technique employs the same basic assumptions behind the return-oriented programming (ROP) technique: an attacker controlling the call stack, for example through a stack buffer overflow, is able to influence the control flow of the program through simple instruction sequences called gadgets. The attack works by pushing a forged sigcontext structure on the call stack, overwriting the original return address with the location of a gadget that allows the attacker to call the sigreturn system call. Often just a single gadget is needed to successfully put this attack into effect. This gadget may reside at a fixed location, making this attack simple and effective, with a setup generally simpler and more portable than the one needed by the plain return-oriented programming technique.
Sigreturn-oriented programming can be considered a weird machine since it allows code execution outside the original specification of the program.
Background
Sigreturn-oriented programming (SROP) is a technique similar to return-oriented programming (ROP), since it employs code reuse to execute code outside the scope of the original control flow.
In this sense, the adversary needs to be able to carry out a stack smashing attack, usually through a stack buffer overflow, to overwrite the return address contained inside the call stack.
Stack hopping exploits
If mechanisms such as data execution prevention are employed, it won't be possible for the attacker to just place a shellcode on the stack and cause the machine to execute it by overwriting the return address.
With such protections in place, the machine won't execute any code present in memory areas marked as writable and non-executable.
Therefore, the attacker will need to reuse code already present in memory.
Most programs do not contain functions that will allow the attacker to directly carry out the desired action (e.g., obtain access to a shell), but the necessary instructions are often scattered around memory.
Return-oriented programming requires these sequences of instructions, called gadgets, to end with a RET instruction. In this way, the attacker can write a sequence of addresses for these gadgets to the stack, and as soon as a RET instruction in one gadget is executed, the control flow will proceed to the next gadget in the list.
Signal handler mechanism
This attack is made possible by how signals are handled in most POSIX-like systems.
Whenever a signal is delivered, the kernel needs to context switch to the installed signal handler. To do so, the kernel saves the current execution context in a frame on the stack.
The structure pushed onto the stack is an architecture-specific variant of the sigcontext structure, which holds various data comprising the contents of the registers at the moment of the context switch.
When the execution of the signal handler is completed, the sigreturn() system call is called.
Calling the sigreturn syscall means being able to easily set the contents of registers using a single gadget that can be easily found on most systems.
Differences from ROP
There are several factors that characterize an SROP exploit and distinguish it from a classical return-oriented programming exploit.
First, ROP is dependent on available gadgets, which can be very different in distinct binaries, thus making chains of gadget non-portable.
Address space layout randomization (ASLR) makes it hard to use gadgets without an information leakage to get their exact positions in memory.
Although Turing-complete ROP compilers exist, it is usually non-trivial to create a ROP chain.
SROP exploits are usually portable across different binaries with minimal or no effort and allow easily setting the contents of the registers, which could be non-trivial or unfeasible for ROP exploits if the needed gadgets are not present.
Moreover, SROP requires a minimal number of gadgets and allows constructing effective shellcodes by chaining system calls. These gadgets are always present in memory, and in some cases are always at fixed locations:
Attacks
Linux
An example of the kind of gadget needed for SROP exploits can always be found in the VDSO memory area on x86-Linux systems:
__kernel_sigreturn proc near:
pop eax
mov eax, 77h
int 80h ; LINUX - sys_sigreturn
nop
lea esi, [esi+0]
__kernel_sigreturn endp
On some Linux kernel versions, ASLR can be disabled by setting the limit for the stack size to unlimited, effectively bypassing ASLR and allowing easy access to the gadget present in VDSO.
For Linux kernels prior to version 3.3, it is also possible to find a suitable gadget inside the vsyscall page, which is a mechanism to accelerate the access to certain system calls often used by legacy programs and resides always at a fixed location.
Turing-completeness
It is possible to use gadgets to write into the contents of the stack frames, thereby constructing a self-modifying program. Using this technique, it is possible to devise a simple virtual machine, which can be used as the compilation target for a Turing-complete language.
An example of such an approach can be found in Bosman's paper, which demonstrates the construction of an interpreter for a language similar to the Brainfuck programming language.
The language provides a program counter PC, a memory pointer P, and a temporary register used for 8-bit addition A. This means that also complex backdoors or obfuscated attacks can be devised.
Defenses and mitigations
A number of techniques exists to mitigate SROP attacks, relying on address space layout randomization, canaries and cookies, or shadow stacks.
Address space layout randomization
Address space layout randomization makes it harder to use suitable gadgets by making their locations unpredictable.
Signal cookies
A mitigation for SROP called signal cookies has been proposed. It consists of a way of verifying that the sigcontext structure has not been tampered with by the means of a random cookie XORed with the address of the stack location where it is to be stored.
In this way, the sigreturn syscall just needs to verify the cookie's existence at the expected location, effectively mitigating SROP with a minimal impact on performances.
Vsyscall emulation
In Linux kernel versions greater than 3.3, the vsyscall interface is emulated, and any attempt to directly execute gadgets in the page will result in an exception.
RAP
Grsecurity is a set of patches for the Linux kernel to harden and improve system security. It includes the so-called Return-Address Protection (RAP) to help protect from code reuse attacks.
CET
Starting in 2016, Intel is developing a Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) to help mitigate and prevent stack-hopping exploits. CET works by implementing a shadow stack in RAM which will only contain return addresses, protected by the CPU's memory management unit.
See also
Linux kernel interfaces
Vulnerability (computing)
Exploit (computer security)
Buffer overflow
Address space layout randomization
Executable space protection
NX bit
References
External links
OHM 2013: Review of “Returning signals for fun and profit
Playing around with SROP
Fun with SROP Exploitation
binjitsu - Sigreturn Oriented Programming
SigReturn Oriented Programming on x86-64 linux
Sigreturn ROP exploitation technique (signal's stack frame for the win)
Computer security exploits |
241545 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modula-3 | Modula-3 | Modula-3 is a programming language conceived as a successor to an upgraded version of Modula-2 known as Modula-2+. While it has been influential in research circles (influencing the designs of languages such as Java, C#, and Python) it has not been adopted widely in industry. It was designed by Luca Cardelli, James Donahue, Lucille Glassman, Mick Jordan (before at the Olivetti Software Technology Laboratory), Bill Kalsow and Greg Nelson at the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Systems Research Center (SRC) and the Olivetti Research Center (ORC) in the late 1980s.
Modula-3's main features are simplicity and safety while preserving the power of a systems-programming language. Modula-3 aimed to continue the Pascal tradition of type safety, while introducing new constructs for practical real-world programming. In particular Modula-3 added support for generic programming (similar to templates), multithreading, exception handling, garbage collection, object-oriented programming, partial revelation, and explicit marking of unsafe code. The design goal of Modula-3 was a language that implements the most important features of modern imperative programming languages in quite basic forms. Thus allegedly dangerous and complicating features such as multiple inheritance and operator overloading were omitted.
Historical development
The Modula-3 project started in November 1986 when Maurice Wilkes wrote to Niklaus Wirth with some ideas for a new version of Modula. Wilkes had been working at DEC just prior to this point, and had returned to England and joined Olivetti's Research Strategy Board. Wirth had already moved on to Oberon, but had no problems with Wilkes's team continuing development under the Modula name. The language definition was completed in August 1988, and an updated version in January 1989. Compilers from DEC and Olivetti soon followed, and 3rd party implementations after that.
Its design was heavily influenced by work on the Modula-2+ language in use at SRC and at the Acorn Computers Research Center (ARC, later ORC when Olivetti acquired Acorn) at the time, which was the language in which the operating system for the DEC Firefly multiprocessor VAX workstation was written and in which the Acorn Compiler for Acorn C and Modula Execution Library (CAMEL) at ARC for the ARX operating system project of ARM based Acorn Archimedes range of computers was written. As the revised Modula-3 Report states, the language was influenced by other languages such as Mesa, Cedar, Object Pascal, Oberon and Euclid.
During the 1990s, Modula-3 gained considerable currency as a teaching language, but it was never widely adopted for industrial use. Contributing to this may have been the demise of DEC, a key Modula-3 supporter (especially when it ceased to maintain it effectively before DEC was sold to Compaq in 1998). In any case, in spite of Modula-3's simplicity and power, it appears that there was little demand for a procedural compiled language with restricted implementation of object-oriented programming. For a time, a commercial compiler named CM3 maintained by one of the chief implementors prior at DEC SRC who was hired before DEC being sold to Compaq, an integrated development environment (IDE) named Reactor and an extensible Java virtual machine (licensed in binary code and source code formats and buildable with Reactor) were offered by Critical Mass, Inc., but that company ceased active operations in 2000 and gave some of the source code of its products to Software Solutions GmbH. Modula-3 is now taught in universities mostly in comparative programming language courses, and its textbooks are out of print. Essentially the only corporate supporter of Modula-3 is , which inherited the sources from Critical Mass and has since made several releases of the CM3 system in source and binary code. The Reactor IDE has been open source released after several years it had not, with the new name CM3-IDE. In March 2002, also took over the repository of another active Modula-3 distribution, PM3, until then maintained at the École Polytechnique de Montréal but which later continued by the work on HM3 improved over the years later until it was obsoleted.
Syntax
A common example of a language's syntax is the "Hello, World!" program.
MODULE Main;
IMPORT IO;
BEGIN
IO.Put("Hello World\n")
END Main.
All programs in Modula-3 have at least a module file, while most also include an interface file that is used by clients to access data from the module. As in some other languages, a Modula-3 program must export a Main module, which can either be a file named Main.m3, or a file can call EXPORT to export the Main module. MODULE Foo EXPORTS Main Module file names are advised to be the same as the name in source code. If they differ, the compiler only emits a warning.
Other conventions in the syntax include naming the exported type of an interface T, since types are usually qualified by their full names, so a type T inside a module named Foo will be named Foo.T. This aids in readability. Another similar convention is naming a public object Public as in the OOP examples above.
Language features
Modularity
First and foremost, all compiled units are either INTERFACE or implementation MODULEs, of one flavor or another. An interface compiled unit, starting with the keyword INTERFACE, defines constants, types, variables, exceptions, and procedures. The implementation module, starting with the keyword MODULE, provides the code, and any further constants, types, or variables needed to implement the interface. By default, an implementation module will implement the interface of the same name, but a module may explicitly EXPORT to a module not of the same name. For example, the main program exports an implementation module for the Main interface.
MODULE HelloWorld EXPORTS Main;
IMPORT IO;
BEGIN
IO.Put("Hello World\n")
END HelloWorld.
Any compiled unit may IMPORT other interfaces, although circular imports are forbidden. This may be resolved by doing the import from the implementation MODULE. The entities within the imported module may be imported, instead of only the module name, using the FROM Module IMPORT Item [, Item]* syntax:
MODULE HelloWorld EXPORTS Main;
FROM IO IMPORT Put;
BEGIN
Put("Hello World\n")
END HelloWorld.
Typically, one only imports the interface, and uses the 'dot' notation to access the items within the interface (similar to accessing the fields within a record). A typical use is to define one data structure (record or object) per interface along with any support procedures. Here the main type will get the name 'T', and one uses as in MyModule.T.
In the event of a name collision between an imported module and other entity within the module, the reserved word
AS can be used as in IMPORT CollidingModule AS X;
Safe vs unsafe
Some ability is deemed unsafe, where the compiler can no longer guarantee that results will be consistent; for example, when interfacing to the C language. The keyword UNSAFE prefixed in front of INTERFACE or MODULE, may be used to tell the compiler to enable certain low level features of the language. For example, an unsafe operation is bypassing the type system using LOOPHOLE to copy the bits of an integer into a floating point REAL number.
An interface that imports an unsafe module must also be unsafe. A safe interface may be exported by an unsafe implementation module. This is the typical use when interfacing to external libraries, where two interfaces are built: one unsafe, the other safe.
Generics
A generic interface and its corresponding generic module,
prefix the INTERFACE or MODULE keyword with GENERIC, and take as formal arguments other interfaces. Thus (like C++ templates) one can easily define and use abstract data types, but unlike C++, the granularity is at the module level. An interface is passed to the generic interface and implementation modules as arguments, and the compiler will generate concrete modules.
For example, one could define a GenericStack, then instantiate it with interfaces such as IntegerElem, or RealElem, or even interfaces to Objects, as long as each of those interfaces defines the properties needed by the generic modules.
The bare types INTEGER, or REAL can't be used, because they are not modules, and the system of generics is based on using modules as arguments. By comparison, in a C++ template, a bare type would be used.
FILE: IntegerElem.i3
INTERFACE IntegerElem;
CONST Name = "Integer";
TYPE T = INTEGER;
PROCEDURE Format(x: T): TEXT;
PROCEDURE Scan(txt: TEXT; VAR x: T): BOOLEAN;
END IntegerElem.
FILE: GenericStack.ig
GENERIC INTERFACE GenericStack(Element);
(* Here Element.T is the type to be stored in the generic stack. *)
TYPE
T = Public OBJECT;
Public = OBJECT
METHODS
init(): TStack;
format(): TEXT;
isEmpty(): BOOLEAN;
count(): INTEGER;
push(elm: Element.T);
pop(VAR elem: Element.T): BOOLEAN;
END;
END GenericStack.
FILE: GenericStack.mg
GENERIC MODULE GenericStack(Element);
< ... generic implementation details... >
PROCEDURE Format(self: T): TEXT =
VAR
str: TEXT;
BEGIN
str := Element.Name & "Stack{";
FOR k := 0 TO self.n -1 DO
IF k > 0 THEN str := str & ", "; END;
str := str & Element.Format(self.arr[k]);
END;
str := str & "};";
RETURN str;
END Format;
< ... more generic implementation details... >
END GenericStack.
FILE: IntegerStack.i3
INTERFACE IntegerStack = GenericStack(IntegerElem) END IntegerStack.
FILE: IntegerStack.m3
MODULE IntegerStack = GenericStack(IntegerElem) END IntegerStack.
Traceability
Any identifier can be traced back to where it originated, unlike the 'include' feature of other languages. A compiled unit must import identifiers from other compiled units, using an IMPORT statement. Even enumerations make use of the same 'dot' notation as used when accessing a field of a record.
INTERFACE A;
TYPE Color = {Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Gray, White};
END A;
MODULE B;
IMPORT A;
FROM A IMPORT Color;
VAR
aColor: A.Color; (* Uses the module name as a prefix *)
theColor: Color; (* Does not have the module name as a prefix *)
anotherColor: A.Color;
BEGIN
aColor := A.Color.Brown;
theColor := Color.Red;
anotherColor := Color.Orange; (* Can't simply use Orange *)
END B.
Dynamic allocation
Modula-3 supports the allocation of data at runtime. There are two kinds of memory that can be allocated, TRACED and UNTRACED, the difference being whether the garbage collector can see it or not. NEW() is used to allocate data of either of these classes of memory. In an UNSAFE module, DISPOSE is available to free untraced memory.
Object-oriented
Object-oriented programming techniques may be used in Modula-3, but their use is not needed. Many of the other features provided in Modula-3 (modules, generics) can usually take the place of object-orientation.
Object support is intentionally kept to its simplest terms. An object type (termed a "class" in other object-oriented languages) is introduced with the OBJECT declaration, which has essentially the same syntax as a RECORD declaration, although an object type is a reference type, whereas RECORDs in Modula-3 are not (similar to structs in C). Exported types are usually named T by convention, and create a separate "Public" type to expose the methods and data. For example:
INTERFACE Person;
TYPE T <: Public;
Public = OBJECT
METHODS
getAge(): INTEGER;
init(name: TEXT; age: INTEGER): T;
END;
END Person.
This defines an interface Person with two types, T, and Public, which is defined as an object with two methods, getAge() and init(). T is defined as a subtype of Public by the use of the <: operator.
To create a new Person.T object, use the built in procedure NEW with the method init() as
VAR jim := NEW(Person.T).init("Jim", 25);
Modula-3's REVEAL construct provides a conceptually simple and clean yet very powerful mechanism for hiding implementation details from clients, with arbitrarily many levels of friendliness. Use REVEAL to show the full implementation of the Person interface from above.
MODULE Person;
REVEAL T = Public BRANDED
OBJECT
name: TEXT; (* These two variables *)
age: INTEGER; (* are private. *)
OVERRIDES
getAge := Age;
init := Init;
END;
PROCEDURE Age(self: T): INTEGER =
BEGIN
RETURN self.age;
END Age;
PROCEDURE Init(self: T; name: TEXT; age: INTEGER): T =
BEGIN
self.name := name;
self.age := age;
RETURN self;
END Init;
BEGIN
END Person.
Note the use of the BRANDED keyword, which "brands" objects to make them unique as to avoid structural equivalence. BRANDED can also take a string as an argument, but when omitted, a unique string is generated for you.
Modula-3 is one of a few programming languages which requires external references from a module to be strictly qualified. That is, a reference in module A to the object x exported from module B must take the form B.x. In Modula-3, it is impossible to import all exported names from a module.
Because of the language's requirements on name qualification and method overriding, it is impossible to break a working program simply by adding new declarations to an interface (any interface). This makes it possible for large programs to be edited concurrently by many programmers with no worries about naming conflicts; and it also makes it possible to edit core language libraries with the firm knowledge that no extant program will be broken in the process.
Exceptions
Exception handling is based on a TRY...EXCEPT block system, which has since become common. One feature that has not been adopted in other languages, with the notable exceptions of Delphi, Python, Scala and Visual Basic.NET, is that the EXCEPT construct defined a form of switch statement with each possible exception as a case in its own EXCEPT clause. Modula-3 also supports a LOOP...EXIT...END construct that loops until an EXIT occurs, a structure equivalent to a simple loop inside a TRY...EXCEPT clause.
Multi-threaded
The language supports the use of multi-threading, and synchronization between threads.
There is a standard module within the runtime library (m3core) named Thread, which supports the use of multi-threaded applications. The Modula-3 runtime may make use of a separate thread for internal tasks such as garbage collection.
A built-in data structure MUTEX is used to synchronize multiple threads and protect data structures from simultaneous access with possible corruption or race conditions. The LOCK statement introduces a block in which the mutex is locked. Unlocking a MUTEX is implicit by the code execution locus's leaving the block. The MUTEX is an object, and as such, other objects may be derived from it.
For example, in the input/output (I/O) section of the library libm3, readers and writers (Rd.T, and Wr.T) are derived from MUTEX, and they lock themselves before accessing or modifying any internal data such as buffers.
Summary
In summary, the language features:
Modules and interfaces
Explicit marking of unsafe code
Generics
Automatic garbage collection
Strong typing, structural equivalence of types
Objects
Exceptions
Threads
Modula-3 is one of the rare languages whose evolution of features is documented.
In Systems Programming with Modula-3, four essential points of the language design are intensively discussed. These topics are: structural vs. name equivalence, subtyping rules, generic modules, and parameter modes like READONLY.
Standard library features
Continuing a trend started with the C language, many of the features needed to write real programs were left out of the language definition and instead provided via a standard library set. Most of the interfaces below are described in detail in
Standard libraries providing the following features. These are called standard interfaces and are required (must be provided) in the language.
Text: Operations on immutable string references, called TEXTs
Thread: Operations relating to threading, including MUTEX, condition variable, and thread pausing. The threading library provides pre-emptive threads switching
Word: Bitwise operations on unsigned integers (or machine words). Normally implemented directly by the compiler
Floating-point interfaces
Some recommended interfaces implemented in the available implementations but are not required
Lex: For parsing number and other data
Fmt: Formatting various datatypes for printing
Pkl (or Pickle): Object serialization of any reference types reachable by the garbage collector
Table: Generic modules for maps
As in C, I/O is also provided via libraries, in Modula-3 called Rd and Wr. The object-oriented design of the Rd (readers) and Wr (writers) libraries is covered in detail in the book by Greg Nelson. An interesting aspect of Modula-3 is that it is one of few programming languages which standard libraries have been formally verified not to contain various types of bugs, including locking bugs. This was done under the auspices of the Larch/Modula-3 (see Larch family) and Extended static checking projects at DEC Systems Research Center.
Implementations
Several compilers are available, most of them open source.
DEC-SRC M3, the original.
Olivetti Research Center (ORC) Modula-3 toolkit, originally a compiler, now available as a library for syntactic, lexical and semantic analysis of Modula-3 programs.
Critical Mass CM3, a different successor of DEC-SRC M3
Polytechnique Montreal Modula-3 PM3, a successor of DEC-SRC M3, currently merging with CM3
EzM3, an independent lightweight and easily portable implementation, developed in connection with CVSup
HM3, a successor of the pm3-1.1.15 release of PM3, with support of native threading using NPTL
CM3, the successor to Critical Mass CM3. This is the only up to date, maintained and developed implementation. Releases are available from http://www.opencm3.net/releng/.
Since the only aspect of C data structures that is missing from Modula-3 is the union type, all extant Modula-3 implementations are able to provide good binary code compatibility with C language type declarations of arrays and structs.
Books
None of these books are still in print, although used copies are obtainable and some are digitized, partly or fully, and some chapters of one them have prior or posterior versions obtainable as research reports from the web.
Greg Nelson, ed., Systems Programming with Modula-3 The definitive reference on the Modula-3 language with interesting articles on object-oriented systems software construction and a documentation of the discussion leading to the final features of the language. There are some formerly (see for Chapter two, for chapter four, for chapter five, for chapter six) and some posteriorly (see for Chapter one and more updated two, thus of both prior versions of language definition and, for chapter three and for chapter seven) of publishing versions of the majority of its eight chapters individually available from prior DEC Systems Research Center (SRC) as research reports for download.
Samuel P. Harbison, Modula-3 Easy to use class textbook.
Robert Sedgewick, Algorithms in Modula-3
Laszlo Boszormenyi & Carsten Weich, Programming in Modula-3: An Introduction in Programming with Style
Renzo Orsini, Agostino Cortesi Programmare in Modula-3: introduzione alla programmazione imperativa e a oggetti an Italian book of the language explaining its main features.
Projects using Modula-3
Software which is programmed Modula-3 includes:
The SPIN operating system
The CVSup software repository synchronizing program
The Obliq language, which uses Modula-3 network objects ability to migrate objects over local networks transparently, allowing a distributed ability to Modula-3 object-oriented programming paradigm. It has been used to build distributed applications, computer animations, and web programming applications in the form of scripting extension to Modula-3.
Influences on other programming languages
Although Modula-3 did not gain mainstream status, several parts of the DEC-SRC M3 distribution did. Probably the most influential part was the Network Objects library, which formed the basis for Java's first Remote Method Invocation (RMI) implementation, including the network protocol. Only when Sun moved from the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard to the IIOP based protocol was it dropped. The Java documentation on garbage collection of remote objects still refer to the pioneering work done for Modula-3 Network Objects. Python's implementation of classes was also inspired by the class mechanism found in C++ and Modula-3.
Also the language Nim makes use of some aspects of Modula-3, such as traced vs untraced pointers.
References
External links
CM3 Implementation Website
Modula-3 Home Page (now long dead, mirror)
Modula-3: Language definition
elego Software Solutions
Modula-3 newsgroup, mostly deserted
Modula-3 Development Mailing List, active
Notes from Caltech's CS2 class, taught in Modula-3 in 2002 and 2003
mirror Programming in Modula-3: program examples
Building Distributed OO Applications: Modula-3 Objects at Work. Michel R. Dagenais. Draft Version (January 1997)
Modula-3: Language, Libraries and Tools. Presentation on Modula-3 over 120 slides. Michael R. Dagenais, dead
Object-Oriented Data Abstraction in Modula-3. Joseph Bergin (1997)
Computerworld Interview with Luca Cardelli on Modula-3
Modula programming language family
Object-oriented programming languages
Systems programming languages
Programming languages created in 1988 |
23903561 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%20California%20Golden%20Bears%20football%20team | 2009 California Golden Bears football team | The 2009 California Golden Bears football team represented the University of California, Berkeley in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) competition during the 2009 season. The Golden Bears were led by eighth-year head coach Jeff Tedford.
California hosted and beat Maryland to begin the season on September 5, 2009. It continued with victories over Eastern Washington, and at Minnesota. However, the team struggled with consistency, losing at Oregon and USC, then rebounding by winning at UCLA, Washington State, and then at Arizona State. Following a loss to Oregon State, Cal managed to upset Pac-10 title contender Arizona. Cal also pulled of an away game upset at Stanford in the Big Game. It ended the season with a loss at Washington on December 5. The Bears matched their 2008 regular season record of 8–4, finishing tied for fifth in the conference with the former reigning conference champion, USC. The Bears did not produce a 1,000-yard rusher for the first time since 2002, Tedford's first season. They accepted a bid to the 2009 Poinsettia Bowl, where they lost to Utah on December 23, snapping a four bowl game winning streak going back to 2004. The team was ranked as high as no. 6, but spent almost half the season unranked. The end of the season saw some coaching changes. Cal hired Jeff Genyk as special teams coach to replace the fired Pete Alamar, and Clancy Pendergast as defensive coordinator to replace Bob Gregory, who departed for Boise State.
Preseason
Several key players departed after 2008, including Alex Mack, Nate Longshore, Zack Follett, Will Ta'ufo'ou and Cameron Morrah offensively, and Zack Follett, Rulon Davis, and Anthony Felder defensively. The Bears also lost offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti to Pittsburgh, but gained Andy Ludwig, who helped guide the Utah Utes to a perfect 13–0 season as offensive coordinator. Ludwig had previously worked alongside Cal head coach Jeff Tedford at Oregon and Fresno State, becoming the fifth offensive coordinator at Cal in five years.
Running back Jahvid Best underwent surgery to tighten a ligament that had been injured when he dislocated his left elbow against Colorado State on September 27, 2008. This was followed up by foot surgery on January 23 to relieve the irritation of an extra bone that was caused when Best bruised his foot halfway through the 2008 season. He missed spring football practice as a result. In early June Best was able to participate in team summer workouts without pain.
A week before the season opener against Maryland, junior Kevin Riley was named the starter for the 2009 season, a contrast to 2008 when head coach Jeff Tedford alternated between him and Nate Longshore. Riley's experience and comfort level with the offense were cited as factors in him winning the starting job over sophomore Brock Mansion and freshman Beau Sweeney.
The Bears were picked to finish second in the Pac-10 behind reigning conference champion USC in the annual preseason poll of media members who regularly cover the Pac-10. This marked the fifth time in the last six Pac-10 preseason polls that Cal was picked to be the conference's runner-up.
Schedule
Game summaries
Maryland
Cal's home opener was a rematch against Maryland, the Terrapins having won an upset of the then ranked #25 Bears in Cal's third game of the 2008 season at College Park. With a 7:00 PM PDT start, it was the Terrapins' turn to make an adjustment to the time change. The Bears played with their last names on their uniforms, a departure from the 2008 season when they had their numbers only.
Cal jumped to an early lead in the first quarter when Jahvid Best broke free for a 73-yard touchdown run on the first play of Cal's second possession. On the ensuing kickoff, the Bears recovered a fumble by Maryland returner Torrey Smith, resulting in Best's second touchdown run of the game from 2 yards. A 47-yard kickoff return by Smith helped set up the Terrapins' first points of the game with a field goal.
Both teams traded a field goal apiece in the second quarter. The Bears then capitalized on a sack of quarterback Chris Turner that led to a fumble recovery. While avoiding a sack from defender Jared Harrell, Kevin Riley threw his first touchdown pass of the game to Skyler Curran. Riley then connected with Nyan Boateng on a 39-yard pass with 31 seconds left in the quarter to make it 31–6 at the half.
Cal added a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter, the first on an 11-yard run from Shane Vereen. After Maryland attempted a fourth down conversion on the Cal 40-yard line and failed, Riley connected with Marvin Jones for a 42-yard touchdown. The Terrapins' final points of the game came on a 39-yard run by Da'Rel Scott. Early in the fourth quarter Riley threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Vereen for Cal's final score of the game. The Bears then pulled their starters as both teams traded possessions.
Kevin Riley threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns, each to a different receiver. Jahvid Best rushed for 137 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Chris Turner threw for 167 yards and was sacked six times. Da'Rel Scott, the second-leading rusher in the Atlantic Coast Conference during the 2008 season, was held to 90 rushing yards with one touchdown. The loss was the Terrapins' most lopsided season opener since 1892, when they lost to St. John's of Annapolis 50–0.
Eastern Washington
The Bears faced the #17 FCS ranked Eagles for the first time. Cal scored first on a 1-yard run by Kevin Riley, followed by the Eagles marching downfield led by quarterback Matt Nichols to tie the game on a 4-yard pass to Grant Williams. The Eagles were able to hold the Bears offensively in the first quarter, however after Shane Vereen made his first of three rushing touchdowns in the beginning of the second quarter, the Bears took control of the game. One the ensuing possession, Nichols was sacked by Mike Mohammed and fumbled. Linebacker Mychal Kendricks recovered the fumble for a 45-yard return, which resulted in a field goal. Kevin Riley then connected with Jahvid Best on the Bears' next possession for a 22-yard touchdown, the only touchdown of the game the Bears scored through the air. Cal led 24–7 at the half.
Cal opened the third quarter with Best scoring his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run and scored on the ensuing possession when Shane Vereen scored his second touchdown from 2 yards. Eastern Washington replaced Nichols with Jeff Minnerly, but he was unable to lead the Eagles offensively, and was replaced in the fourth quarter by Scott Burgett. This proved to be the most productive quarter for the Bears, with Vereen scoring his third touchdown from two yards, wide receiver Isi Sofele making a 22-yard touchdown run, and Covaughn DeBoskie-Johnson making a 1-yard run. The Eagles were able to drive to the Cal 23 with over 5 minutes left in the quarter, but missed a 40-yard field goal attempt.
The Bears amassed 339 rushing yards, with seven of the Bears' touchdowns coming on the ground, from five different players. Best finished the game with 142 rushing yards, a rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown. Shane Vereen had three rushing touchdowns, the first time in his career that he had a multiple rushing touchdown game. Riley had 151 passing yards with one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdowns. The Bears stifled the Eagles' run game, holding them to 21 rushing yards, and made four sacks against all three of the Eagles' quarterbacks. Starter Matt Nichols passed for 197 yards and the Eagles' lone score. The game marked the first time the Bears scored 50 or more points in back to back games since 1947.
Minnesota
Cal's first road game was the second played at Minnesota's brand new TCF Bank Stadium. The Bears dominated the first quarter, scoring on their first possession when Jahvid Best scored on a 34-yard touchdown run, and on their ensuing possession on a 2-yard run from Best. The Gophers got on the board on their first play of the second quarter on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Adam Weber to Eric Decker. The Bears were then able to drive downfield, but missed a 47-yard field goal. Cal scored on its next possession on a 27-yard run from Best, while Minnesota scored before the half when Weber connected with Decker again for a 13-yard touchdown with less than a minute left.
The Gophers put the lone score of the third quarter on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Decker to MarQueis Gray. With the game tied at 21 all, the fourth quarter belonged to the Bears. Best scored two touchdowns from short yardage, while the Cal defense intercepted Weber three times, one setting up a touchdown, and the other two within the final two minutes of the game.
The victory, which placed Cal into the top 10, was only the second win in the last ten road games, snapping a four-game losing streak of road contests. Best, who rushed for 131 yards, set a modern school record and a career-high with five rushing touchdowns. Kevin Riley threw for 252 yards, while the Bear defense held the Gophers to 37 yards rushing. Gophers quarterback Adam Weber threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns, including three interceptions. The Bears' leading receiver in 2008, Nyan Boateng, broke his foot during the first half of the game and is expected to miss four to six weeks.
Oregon
The Bears put their new #6 ranking on the line against the unranked Ducks, who had beaten #14 Utah the previous week, snapping the Utes' 16-game winning streak. On the opening kickoff, the Bears recovered a fumble which they were able to convert into a field goal for their only score of the game. The Ducks also responded with a field goal. Oregon dominated Cal for the next three quarters. The Ducks opened the second quarter with a 26-yard touchdown pass from Jeremiah Masoli to tight end Ed Dickson, with a successful two-point conversion. On the ensuing possession, the Bears were unable to capitalize on a 45-yard kickoff return by Shane Vereen when a 43-yard field goal attempt missed. Cal was able to recover an Oregon fumble on the ensuing possession, but gave the ball right back when Kevin Riley fumbled. The Ducks converted the turnover into points on a 1-yard run from Remene Alston. Oregon struck again when running back LaMichael James scored on a 4-yard run with a minute left in the half to make it 25–3 Oregon.
The second half belonged to the Ducks, who scored two touchdowns in the third quarter on 9- and 36-yard touchdown passes from Masoli to Dickson. The Bears struggled offensively and were unable to add to their score. Freshman quarterback Beau Sweeney stepped in for Riley late in the fourth quarter, which resulted in him moving up in the depth chart as the #2 quarterback.
Oregon dominated Cal, outgaining the Bears with 524 yards of total offense to the Bears' 207. Jahvid Best was held to 55 rushing yards while Kevin Riley threw for 123 yards and was sacked four times. Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli threw for 253 yards and three touchdowns, all of them to Ed Dickson, who had a career best 148 receiving yards. Running back LaMichael James had 118 yards rushing with one touchdown. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak against Oregon and the 39 point difference was the most since a loss to USC in 2001. It was also the worst sustained by Jeff Tedford in his coaching career at Cal, dropping the Bears 18 spots in the AP Polls to #24.
Southern California
Coming off a huge upset the previous week against Oregon, Cal was looking to bounce back against #7 USC. The Bears were able to drive downfield on their first possession after taking the opening kickoff. However, after Kevin Riley threw his first interception of the season to USC safety Taylor Mays in the end zone, the Bears, would remain scoreless until the fourth quarter. The Trojans capitalized on the turnover, with Joe McKnight breaking free for a 38-yard touchdown. Following a USC field goal, the Trojans attempted a fourth down conversion in the closing seconds of the first quarter, but were held by the Bears. Cal however was unable to move the ball and after being driven back to their 24-yard line by a 15-yard penalty, were forced to punt. USC wide receiver Damian Williams then returned the punt 66 yards for a touchdown and the Trojans added a field goal late in the second quarter. Cal was able to drive downfield in the final minute and a half to the USC 21-yard line, but missed a 38-yard field goal to make it 20–0 at the half. The Bears were able to hold the Trojans to a field goal in the third quarter, ending a streak of six scoreless quarters by kicking a field goal in the fourth quarter. The final Trojan score came on a four-yard rushing touchdown by Joe McKnight.
The Bears were held to just a field goal for the second week in a row, with Jahvid Best being held to 48 yards, even less than he was able to gain the previous week. Riley passed for 198 yards and an interception. The Bears were held to 88 total rushing yards, while USC's Joe McKnight rushed for 121 yards and two scores. Matt Barkley passed for 282 yards. The game marked the first time that the Bears had been held out of the end zone at home since 1998 and was the third time during Jeff Tedford's tenure as head coach that Cal failed to score a touchdown, the second time being the previous week.
UCLA
Following a bye week and two consecutive blowout losses, the Bears faced the Bruins in Los Angeles. Both teams came in with a 3–2 overall record and were looking for their first conference win. The Bears scored their first touchdown in three games on their opening possession, when running back Shane Vereen was able to run 42 yards for a score. The Bears then recovered a fumble caused by a sack of Bruins quarterback Kevin Prince, which set up a 43-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Riley to Marvin Jones. UCLA responded on the ensuing possession with a 48-yard kickoff return by Terrence Austin which helped set up a 7-yard run by Jonathan Franklin. In the second quarter, Cal scored first when Riley connected with Jahvid Best for a 51-yard touchdown. UCLA countered when Franklin was able to break free for a 74-yard touchdown run on the following possession. After being pinned at the Cal 7-yard line following a UCLA punt, Best had his first rushing touchdown in three games when he was able to run for a 93-yard score, the third longest touchdown run in school history. Both teams then traded scoring drives, with a Bruins field goal coming after, Riley connecting with Marvin Jones for a 24-yard score, and another Bruins field goal to close out the half. The second half was much quieter, with both teams scoring on field goals in the third quarter, and the final score of the game coming in the fourth when Mychael Kendricks intercepted Prince for a 69-yard touchdown return.
Cal won for the first time in Southern California during Jeff Tedford's tenure as head coach, having previously been 0–7 against UCLA and USC while on the road. Riley finished with 205 yards passing and three touchdowns, two of them to Marvin Jones. Shane Vereen finished with a career-high 154 rushing yards and a score, while Jahvid Best also broke the century mark with 102 rushing yards and a score. For the Bruins, Kevin Prince threw for 313 yards, while Johnathan Franklin rushed for 101 yards and two scores.
Washington State
The Cougars were looking for their first conference win and faced the Bears on the road. Cal wide receiver Jeremy Ross returned the opening kickoff for 54 yards, which set up the first score of the day for the Bears on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Riley to Jahvid Best. On their next possession, Riley connected with Marvin Jones for a 37-yard touchdown. The Bears scored again when Ross took a Cougars punt 76 yards for a touchdown. Following a Washington State field goal, Riley threw a 21-yard touchdown to Shane Vereen. In the second quarter, Best got his first rushing touchdown of the day on a 61-yard run. The Cougars were able to score in back to back possessions, with Jeff Tuel throwing a 68-yard touchdown pass to Johnny Forzani, then a 19-yard touchdown pass to Gino Simone. The Cougars were unable to put up any more points in the second half, although Riley threw an interception in the third quarter. Best got his second rushing touchdown of the game in the third quarter, while Shane Vereen rushed for one in the fourth.
Kevin Riley threw for 229 yards and three touchdowns, while Jahvid Best rushed for 159 yards and two scores, with one touchdown reception. Cougars quarterback Jeff Tuel threw for 354 yards and two scores. The victory was Cal's fifth in a row over Washington State. The Bears put up a season high 559 total yards of offense, while the Cougars remained winless in conference play. While unranked in the AP Top 25 as a result of the win, the Bears earned a #24 BCS ranking.
Arizona State
Both Cal and Arizona State entered the game with a 2–2 conference record. On the Bears' opening possession, the Sun Devils recovered a fumble by Kevin Riley, but were unable to convert it into points. Cal struck quickly, scoring on the ensuing possession when Riley connected with Jahvid Best for an 11-yard touchdown. This was followed up by a 12-yard pass to Marvin Jones on the Bears' third possession. In the second quarter, Sun Devils running back Ryan Bass fumbled on the Cal 2-yard line, which the Bears recovered. However Cal gave the ball right back when Riley fumbled on the 3-yard line. This time Arizona State capitalized, with backup quarterback Samson Szakacsy connecting with Jovon Williams for a 3-yard score. Cal was then able to drive downfield, but Giorgio Tavecchio missed a 34-yard field goal. Arizona State quarterback Danny Sullivan then connected with Kyle Williams for an 80-yard score. The Bears' sole score of the quarter was a 25-yard field goal to make it 17–14 at the half set up by a 38-yard interception return by Syd'Quan Thompson.
The sole score of the third quarter came on a 51-yard field goal by Tavecchio set up by an interception of Sullivan by Eddie Young. Arizona State took their only lead of the game when Cameron Marshall ran in for a 6-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. After Tavecchio missed a 39-yard field goal, Cal was able to drive downfield in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter and Tavecchio made the game winning 24-yard field goal with 21 seconds left. A Sun Devils comeback attempt was stifled when Sullivan was sacked by Tyson Alualu.
The victory brought the Bears back into the Top 25 at #23 and moved them up in the BCS Rankings to #20. Both teams combined for 238 yards on 23 penalties, with five total turnovers. Riley threw for 351 yards and two touchdowns, while Best had one receiving touchdown but was held to 63 rushing yards. For the Sun Devils, Sullivan passed for 244 yards and a touchdown. Marshall had 71 yards rushing and a touchdown.
Oregon State
The #23 ranked Bears had not defeated the Beavers in Memorial Stadium since 1997, and with their last win in the series occurring in 2006 in Corvallis, Oregon. Oregon State drove downfield on their second possession of the game and scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Sean Canfield. The Beavers scored again 1 minute into the second quarter when Canfield passed to James Rodgers for 15 yards. The Bears responded by marching downfield in a drive that consumed more than 7 minutes. Jahvid Best was able to score on a direct snap from 7 yards out, but sustained a severe concussion when while hurdling defender Tim Clark, he was pushed in the air by safety Cameron Collins, causing him to fall on his right shoulder and neck. The game was halted for nearly 15 minutes while Best was attended to, eventually being taken to a local hospital. Oregon State came back after play resumed to extend their lead to 21–7 when Canfield threw a 3-yard pass to Jordan Bishop in the final two minutes of the half.
In the third quarter, Sean Canfield threw an interception on the Cal 1-yard line, but Kevin Riley was intercepted in turn, which the Beavers were able to convert into a field goal. In the fourth quarter, Oregon State put together a scoring drive over six minutes long that culminated in a 24-yard touchdown run by Jacquizz Rodgers. With the game out of reach, Riley led the Bears on a drive lasting less than a minute that ended in a 2-yard touchdown pass to Verran Tucker with a minute left to play. An attempt at an onside kick was recovered by Oregon State, and Canfield took two straight knees to end the game.
In the Bears' fifth straight loss to the Beavers, Riley threw for 200 yards and a score, while Best was held to 29 yards and 9 carries. Oregon State's victory made them bowl eligible, with Canfield passing for 342 yards and two scores, making this game the third straight that the Bears had given up more than 300 passing yards. Jacquizz Rodgers, the 2008 Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year, was held to a season low 67 rushing yards.
Arizona
In their final home season game, the Bears started backup running back Shane Vereen in place of Jahvid Best, who was still recovering from a concussion sustained the previous week. The #18 ranked Wildcats were also missing their starting running back, Nic Grigsby. The Bears capped off their opening first quarter drive with a 46-yard field goal by Giorgio Tavecchio and were able to recover a Wildcat fumble late in the quarter, which resulted in another field goal to begin the second quarter. Arizona responded late in the quarter with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Keola Antolin which was followed up by a 36-yard field goal. With less than 30 seconds left in the half, the Bears were able to drive downfield and enable Tavecchio to kick a 46-yard field goal to make it 10–9 Wildcats.
The third quarter started out promisingly for Cal when Josh Hill intercepted Nick Foles. However Tavecchio missed a 46-yard field goal attempt and Kevin Riley was intercepted on the Bears' next possession by Cam Nelson. The Bears defense however was able to hold the Wildcats and Cal capitalized on a 14-yard punt when Riley connected with Skylar Curran for a 27-yard touchdown, with the two-point conversion attempt failing. Riley threw another interception late in the quarter which the Wildcats were able to convert into a touchdown early in the fourth on an 8-yard reception by A.J. Simmons. An attempt at a two-point conversion also failed. The Bears responded by marching downfield in a lengthy drive consuming more than seven minutes that resulted in a field goal. The Wildcats were unable to take advantage of a 37-yard kickoff return by Travis Cobb and turned the ball over on downs. Vereen was then able to break free for a 61-yard touchdown run with 1:30 left in the game. However, the extra point attempt was botched, leaving Arizona with the possibility of forcing overtime with a touchdown and successful two-point conversion with just over a minute to play. The Bear defense however was able to preserve the lead, sacking Foles twice.
Riley threw for 181 yards and a score, with two interceptions. Vereen had 30 carries for 159 yards, both career highs, including one score. The Bears defense managed to sack Arizona quarterback Nick Foles three times. Foles had only been sacked four times before all season before the game. He threw for 201 yards and a score, while Antolin, who had rushed for 149 yards against the Bears in 2008, was held to 78 yards and a score. The Bears' fourth straight victory over the Wildcats at Memorial Stadium moved them up to #25 in the BCS rankings.
Stanford
Both teams faced each other in the 112th Big Game with seven wins each, the first time this had happened since 1991, with #17 Stanford favored over #25 Cal. The Cardinal had scored a combined 106 points in two previous games against higher ranked opponents, with consecutive upsets over Oregon and USC, two teams which had blown out Cal 42–3 and 30–3, respectively. Cal also played its second game without star running back Jahvid Best, again starting backup Shane Vereen.
The Cardinal scored on their first possession when Toby Gerhart broke free on the game's third play for a 61-yard touchdown. After successfully blocking a punt, which gave Stanford great field position on the Cal 19-yard line, Gerhart scored again on a 2-yard run. The Bears responded with a scoring drive of their own that resulted in a field goal. In the second quarter, a Cal drive was halted when Richard Sherman intercepted Kevin Riley deep in Stanford territory. The Cardinal were unable to capitalize on the turnover however, and the Bears went on a five-minute scoring drive that saw Vereen score his first touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run with just over a minute left in the quarter to make it 14–10 Stanford at the half.
Cal took the lead in the third quarter with a 92-yard scoring drive resulting in a 4-yard run by Vereen. Stanford was able to move downfield in turn, but missed a 45-yard field goal. The Bears marched downfield again and scored on a 3-yard run by Vereen. Stanford responded on the ensuing possession by scoring on a 1-yard run by Gerhart. The Bears in turn scored in the beginning of the fourth quarter with a 12-yard pass from Riley to Marvin Jones. Midway through the quarter, the Cardinal put together an 87-yard touchdown drive which resulted in Gerhart getting his fourth score of the game on a 5-yard run. After getting the ball back with just under 4 minutes left in the game, Stanford attempted a fourth down conversion which failed. The Bears took possession on the Stanford 23-yard line, but ended up settling for a field goal, making the score 34–28 and giving the Cardinal a chance to win with more than two and a half minutes left if they could score a touchdown. Stanford started out with good field position at its 42-yard line and was able to drive down to the Cal 13-yard line. Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed saved the game for the Bears when he intercepted Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck, allowing Riley to take three straight knees and Cal to retain the Stanford Axe.
The victory marked two milestones for Jeff Tedford's tenure as coach at California; this was his 100th game and his 67th victory, tying Pappy Waldorf for the most wins at Cal in the modern era. Riley threw for 235 yards and a score, while Vereen had another career game, rushing for 193 yards on 42 carries with three scores. The loss, as well as a double overtime win later in the day by Oregon over Arizona, eliminated Stanford from Rose Bowl contention and the possibility of sharing the Pac-10 conference title. Luck threw for 157 yards, while Gerhart rushed for 136 yards and all of Stanford's four touchdowns, tying a single Big Game record previously set by Cal players Chuck Muncie and Lindsey Chapman.
Washington
The Bears entered their final game of the regular season after a bye week following the Big Game, with the Huskies also coming off a victory in their rivalry game after regaining the Apple Cup from archrival Washington State the previous week. Star running back Jahvid Best missed his third straight game since sustaining a severe concussion against Oregon State on November 7. Cal drove 78 yards on the opening possession, but missed a 42-yard field goal. Washington quickly responded with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Jake Locker to Jermaine Kearse, and from then on held onto the lead. The Bears' sole score of the first half came on their second possession with a 29-yard field goal. In the second quarter, Locker scored twice on a 19-yard run and 2-yard run, to make it 21–3 Huskies at the half.
Washington opened the second half with a score on a 21-yard pass from Locker to Devin Aguilar. Cal responded on the ensuing possession for their only score of the second half on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Riley to Nyan Boateng. The Huskies came right back with a scoring drive on their own on a 13-yard pass from Locker to Aguilar. The Bears were unable to capitalize on a 65-yard kickoff return by Isi Sofele and a fourth down conversion attempt was halted at the Washington 13-yard line with six and a half minutes left in the third quarter. The Huskies shut down the Bear offense for the rest of the game, recovering two fumbles by Riley in the fourth quarter and scoring late in the game on a 10-yard run by Chris Polk.
The loss dropped Cal to fifth place in the Pac-10 standings, tying the Bears with USC, who lost earlier to Arizona. Riley passed for 215 yards and a touchdown, but was sacked five times. Shane Vereen was held to 92 rushing yards. The Huskies' Jake Locker threw for 248 yards and three scores, while rushing for 77 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Chris Polk rushed for 93 yards and a score, while defensive end Daniel Te’o-Neshehim, who had three sacks on Riley, came out of the game as Washington's career sack leader with 30. The victory was Washington's second over a ranked opponent since upsetting #3 USC at home on September 19. The Huskies became just the eleventh FBS team since 1946 to follow a winless season with five victories.
Poinsettia Bowl
Cal played its third bowl game in San Diego in six years, having made two previous trips to the Holiday Bowl in 2004 and 2006. The Bears had not lost a bowl game since 2004. Running back Jahvid Best did not play in the Poinsettia Bowl, missing his fourth straight game. Utah entered the matchup with eight straight bowl victories, the longest post-season winning streak in the nation. The Utes also faced their former offensive coordinator, Andy Ludwig, who had helped guide them the previous year to a 13–0 record and #2 ranking.
The game started promisingly for the Bears, who were able to hold the Utes on their first two possessions. Midway through the first quarter, Cal scored first on a 36-yard run by Shane Vereen. The Bears quickly struck again when linebacker Eddie Young intercepted Jordan Wynn for a 30-yard touchdown return on the ensuing possession. From this point on however, the game belonged to the Utes. Utah's comeback began with a 61-yard kickoff return by Shaky Smithson that helped set up the first touchdown pass of the night for Wynn on a 6-yard strike to Kendrick Moeai. Cal struggled offensively in the second quarter and could not get past midfield. Utah scored on all three of its possessions with a field goal, 15-yard touchdown reception by Moeai, and 21-yard touchdown reception by Jereme Brooks. The Utes led 24–14 at the half and had scored 24 unanswered points.
The second half saw the game seesaw back and forth defensively until Kevin Riley was sacked, resulting in a fumble which the Utes recovered late in the third quarter. Cal was able to hold Utah to a field goal and responded on the next possession by driving downfield, allowing Vereen to score his second touchdown of the night on a 1-yard run. Utah put up the first points of the fourth quarter on a field goal, and Stevenson Sylvester intercepted Riley on a tipped pass that he was able to return for a 27-yard touchdown. Riley threw a second straight interception, but the defense was able to hold the Utes. The final score of the game came late in the quarter on a 24-yard touchdown reception by Jeremy Ross to make the score 37–27 Utah. Cal attempted a two-point conversion, which failed. An attempt at an onside kick was recovered by Utah, allowing Wynn to take three straight knees.
Vereen finished with 122 rushing yards and two scores, becoming the seventh Cal running back to rush for 100 yards in a bowl game. Riley threw for 214 yards, accounted for all three Cal turnovers with two interceptions and a fumble, and was sacked four times. The Bears were able to halt the Utes' running game, but had trouble stopping them through the air. Jordan Wynn threw for 338 yards and two scores, with one interception and three sacks. Wide receiver David Reed set school records for catches (81) and receiving yards (1,188) in a season during the game. Cal's loss ended a winning streak of four postseason games. The last bowl game the Bears had lost was in San Diego at the 2004 Holiday Bowl. The Utes extended their post-season winning streak to nine bowl games.
Aftermath
As a result of the concussion sustained by starting running back Jahvid Best on November 7, Shane Vereen, who had served as the primary backup, stepped into the starting spot for the rest of the year. Best would miss the rest of the season and finished with 867 yards rushing. Vereen finished the season with 952 yards rushing including 122 yards in the Poinsettia Bowl. This ended a seven-year stretch of 1,000-yard rushers going back to head coach Jeff Tedford's first year at Cal in 2002. The Bears lost their first bowl game since 2004, snapping a winning streak of four post-season victories.
The Bears saw several coaching changes. Pete Alamar, special teams and tight ends coach, was not asked back for the 2010 season. The Bears had struggled on special teams all season, ranking ninth in the conference in kick coverage, 48th nationally, and 99th nationally in punt coverage. Placekicker duties during the season alternated between Giorgio Tavecchio and Vince D'Amato, with consistency an issue. Alamar was succeeded by Jeff Genyk.
Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory, who was first hired by head coach Tedford upon Tedford's arrival at Cal in 2002, left the team to become a defensive assistant at Boise State. He was succeeded by Clancy Pendergast, who had been hired by the Oakland Raiders on February 8, 2010 as a defensive assistant. Pendergast had previously been the defensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs and Arizona Cardinals. Former NFL players Akili Smith and Ronnie Bradford joined the Cal coaching staff March 12, 2010 as administrative assistants for the offense and defense, respectively. Tedford had previously coached Smith as a quarterback at Oregon.
Cal was represented at the East–West Shrine Game by Mike Tepper and Verran Tucker, and at the Senior Bowl by Tyson Alualu and Syd'Quan Thompson.
Jahvid Best announced on January 2, 2010 that he forgo his senior year and enter the NFL draft. He was picked by the Detroit Lions as the 30th overall selection in the 2010 NFL Draft following Tyson Alualu, who was drafted as the 10th overall selection by the Jacksonville Jaguars. This marked the first time since 2003 that two Cal players had been drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft. No other players were drafted until Syd'Quan Thompson was the final Cal player to be picked in the seventh round as the 225th overall selection by the Denver Broncos.
Offensive linemen Chet Teofilo and Mike Tepper signed undrafted free agent contracts with the Dallas Cowboys on April 24. Wide receiver Verran Tucker joined them on April 26, the same day that linebacker Devin Bishop signed a free agent contract with Denver.
Players
Depth chart
These were the primary starters and backups through the 2009 season.
Roster
Awards and honors
All-Pacific-10 Conference Team:
First Team: OL, Mike Tepper; DL, Tyson Alualu; LB, Mike Mohamed; DB, Syd'Quan Thompson; P, Bryan Anger
Second Team: RB, Jahvid Best
Honorable mention: S, Sean Cattouse; C, Chris Guarnero; DE, Cameron Jordan; TE, Anthony Miller; OT, Mitchell Schwartz; TB, Shane Vereen
Schwartz was chosen as second-team preseason All-Pac-10 by Lindy, and to third team by Athlon. Phil Steele chose him as preseason, midseason, and postseason third-team All-Pac-10. He received a Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention, and was awarded the Brick Muller Award as Cal's Most Valuable Offensive Lineman.
Rankings
References
External links
2009 California Football Media Guide
California
California Golden Bears football seasons
California Golden Bears football |
595635 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CodeWarrior | CodeWarrior | CodeWarrior is an integrated development environment (IDE) published by NXP Semiconductors for editing, compiling, and debugging software for several microcontrollers and microprocessors (Freescale ColdFire, ColdFire+, Kinetis, Qorivva, PX, Freescale RS08, Freescale S08, and S12Z) and digital signal controllers (DSC MC56F80X and MC5680XX) used in embedded systems.
The system was developed by Metrowerks on the Macintosh, and was among the first development systems on that platform to cleanly support both the existing Motorola 68k and the new PowerPC (PPC). During Apple's transition to the PPC, CodeWarrior quickly became the de facto standard development system for the Mac, rapidly displacing Symantec's THINK C and Apple's own Macintosh Programmer's Workshop. The purchase of NeXT in 1996 led to a decline in CodeWarrior's relevance as Mac programming moved to the NeXT platform's own developer tools.
Metrowerks responded by porting CodeWarrior to Microsoft Windows and introducing compilers for a wider variety of platforms. It became a major part of the software stack for Motorola's varied lines of microcontrollers, and eventually led to them purchasing Metrowerks in 1999. It was widely used on most platforms based on PPC or other Motorola processors, as well as many games consoles. The product moved to Freescale Semiconductor when that company formed in 2004, and then to NXP when they purchased Freescale in 2015.
Originally a single integrated product, now known as the "Classic IDE", the IDE was later replaced with Eclipse IDE. The current versions are 6.3 of the Classic IDE, and 11.0 for the Eclipse IDE. Languages supported are C, C++, and assembly language.
Old versions
Prior to the acquisition of the product by Freescale, versions existed targeting Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii, Dreamcast, SuperH, M·CORE, Palm OS, Symbian OS, and BeOS.
Metrowerks versions of CodeWarrior also included Pascal, Object Pascal, Objective-C, and Java compilers.
Older versions of CodeWarrior can be used to develop on classic Mac OS. Classilla is built with Metrowerks CodeWarrior 7.1.
History
CodeWarrior was originally developed by Metrowerks based on a C compiler and environment for the Motorola 68K, developed by Andreas Hommel and acquired by Metrowerks. The first versions of CodeWarrior targeted the PowerPC Macintosh, with much of the development done by a group from the original THINK C team. Much like THINK C, which was known for its fast compile times, CodeWarrior was faster than Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW), the development tools written by Apple.
CodeWarrior was a key factor in the success of Apple's transition of its machine architecture from 68K processors to PowerPC because it provided a complete, solid PowerPC compiler when the competition (Apple's MPW tools and Symantec C++) was mostly incomplete or late to the market. Metrowerks also made it easy to generate fat binaries, which included both 68K and PowerPC code.
Java support in CodeWarrior for Macintosh was announced for May 1996, slated for CodeWarrior 9. Metrowerks took the approach to add Java tools support in CodeWarrior, including debugging, rather than write a new IDE.
In August 1996, Metrowerks announced CodeWarrior for BeBox, a BeOS version of the IDE named BeIDE supplementing the PowerPC compiler that was already available to BeOS software developers.
After Metrowerks was acquired by Motorola in 1999, the company concentrated on embedded applications, devoting a smaller fraction of their efforts to compilers for desktop computers. On 29 July 2005, they announced that CodeWarrior for Mac would be discontinued after the next release, CodeWarrior Pro 10. Metrowerks indicated that revenue share of the product fell from 22% to 5% in the last four years and the effort by the company to concentrate on the embedded development market. The demand for CodeWarrior had presumably fallen during the time Apple began distributing Xcode (its own software development kit for OS X) for free. In addition, Apple's switch to Intel chips left Metrowerks without an obvious product as they had sold their Intel compiler technology to Nokia earlier in 2005.
During its heyday, the product was known for its rapid release cycle, with multiple revisions every year, and for its quirky advertising campaign. Their "geekware" shirts were featured in the fashion pages of The New York Times.
Origin of the name
During the 1990s, Apple Computer released a monthly series of developer CD-ROMs containing resources for programming the Macintosh. These CDs were, in the early days, whimsically titled using punning references to various movies but with a coding twist; for example, "The Hexorcist" (The Exorcist), "Lord of the Files" (Lord of the Flies), "Gorillas in the Disc" (Gorillas in the Mist), etc.
One of these, volume 9, was titled "Code Warrior", referring to the movie The Road Warrior. Later Apple dropped the whimsical titling in favor of a more sober "Developer CD series". Coincidentally the Metrowerks founder, Greg Galanos, an Australian, was also inspired by the movie and proposed the CodeWarrior name. Metrowerks subsequently used the name for their new developer product.
CodeWarrior CD packaging was very much in the tradition of the Apple developer CDs, featuring slogans such as "Blood, Sweat, and Code" and "Veni, Vidi, Codi" in prominent lettering. Competing products such as Symantec's THINK C were more conventionally marketed.
CodeWarrior Latitude
Metrowerks foresaw as it had with the transition to PowerPC, a need to provide a must have developer tool to help developers transition from MacOS software to Apple's future operating system, codenamed Rhapsody.
In 1997, Metrowerks acquired the principal assets of The Latitude Group Inc. from David Hempling and his partners. Latitude was a software compatibility layer used to port Macintosh applications to the NeXT Computer and other UNIX systems.
Latitude presented itself as a library that implemented the Macintosh System 7 API in the same way that Lee Lorenzen's Altura Mac2Win software as well as Apple's own Quicktime for Windows SDK allowed Macintosh applications to be recompiled for Windows with minimal modifications. Latitude had previously been used successfully by Adobe to port Photoshop and Premiere to Silicon Graphics and Solaris workstations.
Metrowerks rebranded Latitude as CodeWarrior Latitude, updated it for Rhapsody starting with Developer Preview 1 and then marketed it to Macintosh developers as a separate product for $399, alongside CodeWarrior Professional.
Latitude Developer Release 1 (DR1) was previewed at WWDC 1997 in the CodeWarrior Lounge. Latitude DR2 was released on Oct 27, 1997 and won an Eddy Award at the 1998 Macworld for Best Tool for New Technologies beating out Joy from AAA+ Software F&E and Visual Cafe for Macintosh 1.0.2 by Symantec.
At the time, Steve Jobs was heavily promoting the OPENSTEP API (renamed Yellow Box) in order to access the new features of the operating system. For C/C++/Pascal Macintosh developers, this presented a substantial hurdle because it was markedly different from the classic MacOS API that ran inside Blue Box and was Objective-C based. Latitude appeared to be another hit for Metrowerks and further solidify its dominance in the Macintosh developer tools market but Apple secretly had plans of its own.
CodeWarrior's IDE for Rhapsody and CodeWarrior Latitude were both demonstrated at Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in 1998 in the third party developer pavilion but were quietly discontinued at the show following Steve Jobs keynote address. Apple's announcement of its forthcoming Carbon API (codenamed "Ivory Tower") to appeal to developers who required a practical way to transition to the new operating system eliminated the need for any third-party solutions.
Metrowerks used Latitude internally to port CodeWarrior to run on Red Hat and SuSE Linux for commercial sale and additionally to Solaris under contract from Sun Microsystems. Both products utilized gcc command line compilers rather than Metrowerks own compiler technologies to promote adoption within the UNIX developer community.
The final version of Latitude supported Solaris 2.3, SGI Irix 5.2 and Rhapsody DP2, dropping HP-UX support.
References
External links
C (programming language) compilers
C++ compilers
Integrated development environments
Classic Mac OS software
Classic Mac OS text editors
Classic Mac OS programming tools |
50620772 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnePlus%203 | OnePlus 3 | The OnePlus 3 (also abbreviated as OP3) is a smartphone produced by OnePlus. It was revealed on 14 June 2016. The phone was unveiled in a virtual reality event and OnePlus offered its customers Loop VR headsets to experience the event using their phones, giving away 30,000 free headsets in lieu of a traditional press conference.
History
Release
The OnePlus 3 is the first OnePlus device to not be part of the invite system, which OnePlus had used for its last three devices to regulate flow with inadequate manufacturing for the inevitable high demand.
Following some controversy, the OxygenOS 3.2.1 update began rollout on 7 July 2016, with improved RAM management, an alternate sRGB display mode in developer options, and various bug fixes.
Discontinuation
An updated version of the device, called the OnePlus 3T, was announced by the company on 15 November 2016 and released on 22 November. It improves upon the OnePlus 3 by including the newer Snapdragon 821 chipset, a 16MP front camera, along with a 3400mAh non-removable battery. Sales of the OnePlus 3 were discontinued on 17 November with the OnePlus 3T replacing it. It was also announced the phone will share the same software update cycle with its successor starting from Android N.
After owners of the phone expressed concern whether their phone would be abandoned after the release of the OnePlus 5, it was confirmed by OnePlus CEO Pete Lau that the phone and its predecessor would eventually receive a software update to Android O. It was also announced that it would be the last major update. On 8 September 2017, the phone started receiving Android O in closed beta with public beta updates following soon after as part of their community beta program. As of 19 September 2017, Android 8.0 Oreo has been delivered via software update.
Android 9 Update
On 30 June 2018, OnePlus updated their update policy for the OnePlus 3 and 3T, opting to update to Android Pie (9.0) instead of Android 8.1, and discontinued their Android 8 OpenBeta program. The first stable Android Pie update was rolled out to devices in May 2019. Including security updates and bug fixes, the latest firmware for the 3/3T is OxygenOS 9.0.6 based on Android 9.
Specifications
The OnePlus 3 features a new metal back design, similar to that of an HTC M9 or later, with anodised aluminium and curved edges. The device is available in two colors, Graphite (black/gray) and Soft Gold (white/gold, released later in August 2016.) Additionally, users can purchase protective covers in Kevlar or black apricot wood, bamboo, rosewood, and sandstone which takes care of the camera hump and evens it with the phone.
The device is slightly smaller than its predecessor, the OnePlus 2. It's 2.5mm thinner, 0.9mm shorter, and 0.2mm narrower, but still has the same screen size, at across diagonally. The display is still 1920×1080 px, comparable to that of the previous two models, but the 3 is the first flagship OnePlus to have an optic AMOLED display. As is typical for most smartphones, the OnePlus 3 features Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection.
The OnePlus 3 is also the first OnePlus phone to ship with only 64 GB of storage available, as all other OnePlus devices have shipped with a 16 GB option also. The onboard storage is UFS 2.0, but there is no option for memory expansion via an SD card. The OnePlus 3 does include a dual-sim card tray, but fails to have compatibility with LTE band 13, making LTE unavailable to Verizon customers in the United States.
For the rear-facing camera, the OnePlus 3 has a 16 MP f/2.0 Sony IMX 298 sensor, with both optical image stabilisation and electronic image stabilisation. It is capable of 4K video at 30fps, and 720p slo-mo video at 120fps. Further, it includes support for shooting RAW images, allowing greater control of the image to the user. The front camera is an 8 MP f/2.0 Sony IMX179 sensor, with 1080p at 30fps video and fixed focus.One new feature to the OnePlus 3 is Dash Charge. It is a custom version of OnePlus' parent company's (OPPO Electronics) VOOC Charging. The feature is made possible by the processor, which has Quick Charge 3.0 support. According to the company, the battery can achieve a 60% or more charge within 30 minutes. This is accomplished by doing all the power transforming required for direct input to the battery in the power brick supplied, not within the phone itself, reducing heat on the device. Additionally, the power brick can contain larger, dedicated electronics, whereas any power processing on a phone has to use smaller and cooler equipment, reducing the speed of charging.
Other features include the alert slider, originally added to the OnePlus 2. NFC was added again from the OnePlus One (as it was absent from OnePlus 2).
A fingerprint scanner is also found at the bottom of the screen. It is estimated to unlock after approximately 0.3 seconds, becoming one of the fastest scanners on a phone. The fingerprint scanner also has a ceramic coating to avoid scratches.
Network compatibility
Reception
General reception included positive reviews from both critiques and reviewers for a premium designed phone for an affordable price. But reviewers were quick to point out the camera bezel with a subpar camera. Reviewers also critiqued the phone not having an SD card slot as the phone only came with 64 GB of storage. Reports also claim that the phone experienced heating issues. Several reports also claimed that despite the OnePlus 3's 6 GB of RAM, the phone could not handle more than 3 or 4 applications at one time. Ars Technica added that OnePlus configured its build of Android to impose an artificial limit of 20 applications stored in RAM at a time. OnePlus indicated this was a deliberate choice to maximize battery life.
The Verge gave the OnePlus 3 an 8.6/10, praising its great build quality, high performance and sharp display. However, The Verge had some reservations about the phone, noting that it does not work on the US Verizon or Sprint networks, it does not have an SD Card slot, and the quick charging is limited to a OnePlus-specific cable and power brick. Nonetheless, they conclude that "The OnePlus 3 is the rare kind of phone [we] can recommend without reservations".
On launch, XDA Developers called the OnePlus 3 the "Perfect Canvas for the Spec-Hungry Tinkerer". In January they discovered that with the launch of the Android 7.0 Nougat update, OnePlus introduced a software defeat device into the code of the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T, relaxing thermal throttling and increasing clock speeds when the phone detected that it was in a benchmark app, in order to boost benchmark scores. This came as a bit of a shock to much of the Android enthusiast community, as every major manufacturer had removed their benchmark cheating code following the massive backlash that occurred when it was originally discovered on other devices in 2013. OnePlus immediately stated that they would be removing the benchmark cheating from future software versions, and that they weren't sure how it made it into a production build. OnePlus later reversed this decision with the OnePlus 5, reintroducing the software that locked clock speeds to their maximum while in a benchmark.
References
OnePlus mobile phones
Mobile phones introduced in 2016
Discontinued smartphones
Android (operating system) devices
Mobile phones with 4K video recording |
50645340 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samvera | Samvera | Samvera, originally known as Hydra, is an open-source digital repository software product. Samvera main components are Fedora Commons, Solr, Blacklight, and HydraHead (a Ruby on Rails plugin and gem, respectively). Each Samvera implementation is called a "head".
History
The project was launched in September 2008. The software was developed as a collaboration between Stanford University, the University of Virginia, the University of Hull, and Fedora Commons. The stated goal of the project was to "support the rapid development of multiple systems tailored to distinct needs, but powered by a common underlying repository."
In May 2017, the project began discontinuing use of the Hydra name and announced that the "Hydra Project" would become the "Samvera Community."
Project governance
There are three governance bodies. The original collaborators, plus some newer members, form the Samvera Steering Group. That group oversees legal and administrative aspects of the project. A second body is made up of institutional partners. Over two dozen institutions are formal partners. The Samvera developers group is the third group and is made up of contributors to the Samvera software.
Use
Samvera is primarily used in libraries and digital repositories. It was originally developed to make use of metadata defined by the Library of Congress's Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) standard. Samvera implements the Opinionated Metadata gem to create domain-specific languages out of complex XML standards such as MODS. Other metadata standards, such as Dublin Core and Encoded Archival Description (EAD), are also employed in Samvera implementations.
Samvera allows storage of any type of digital files for the purposes of access and/or digital archiving. It is suited to both large and small collections, and is being used in some cases to allow faculty and researchers to self-deposit their own digital research materials.
The concept of Samvera "heads" is unique to this repository software. Each head is a Ruby on Rails application that provides a user experience and set of specific functionalities to a certain user community using content and metadata (the body, with the content residing in Fedora and the metadata residing in Solr) that may be shared with other such heads. For example, a faculty member may use a certain Samvera head to crop, fine-tune, and submit a set of images that is relevant to their research. A casual user may use a different Samvera head to browse these images without the clutter of all the photo editing and submission capabilities. Finally, a librarian user may access yet another Samvera head to curate an online exhibit of research at their University, using the photographs submitted by the faculty member but employing a special curatorial interface.
Samvera has been modified to meet special needs, such as the development of GeoHydra at Stanford University.
Derivatives
Due to its extensive list of dependencies, Samvera is difficult for smaller institutions to implement. To make this software more feasible for such institutions, the Digital Public Library of America, Stanford University, and DuraSpace partnered on a grant project from the Institute for Museum and Library Services called "Hydra-in-a-box". The goal of this project is to extend the Hydra codebase to "build, bundle, and promote a feature-rich, robust, flexible digital repository that is easy to install, configure, and maintain."
Hyku
This new repository application for managing cultural heritage content is called Hyku. Hyku reduces barriers to effective asset management and preservation for collections and content types of many kinds, and is supported by a vibrant and ever-growing open source community. With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the collaborative project kicked off in 2015. In 2017, Hyku entered beta, and in February 2019, it was promoted out of Samvera Labs. Ongoing development of Hyku is guided by the Samvera community via the Hyku Interest Group and associated partners. Hyku 3.0 was released in February 2021.
Building on Hyrax, Hyku has a long list of features and distinctions, including:
Multi-tenancy, or the ability to host multiple repository “slices” within the same application, each with its own users, objects, and look & feel
Support for the IIIF Image and Presentation APIs
Support for harvesting metadata and content via ResourceSync
Rich object viewing using the Universal Viewer
Two bundled work types: Image Work and Generic Work
There are projects in Samvera Community to develop Hyku repository application further for existing and potential adopters. One of them is Hyku for Consortia funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and coordinated by The Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI) and Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI). The project aims to explore, develop, and pilot an open source, multi-tenant, consortial institutional repository (IR). Other one is Advancing Hyku funded by Arcadia, a charitable fund of philanthropists Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin and coordinated by University of Virginia Library, Ubiquity Press and the British Library. Advancing Hyku is a collaborative project to support the growth of open access through institutional repositories, by introducing significant structural improvements and new features to the Samvera Community’s Hyku platform.
See also
Omeka
References
External links
Samvera Project page
Samvera code on github
Selected Samvera repositories
Stanford University Digital Repository
Hull University
Yale University
Penn State Scholarsphere
Free software
Institutional repository software
Open-access archives
Free institutional repository software
Digital library software |
1404135 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorme | DeLorme | DeLorme is a producer of personal satellite tracking, messaging, and navigation technology. The company’s main product, inReach, integrates GPS and satellite technologies. inReach provides the ability to send and receive text messages anywhere in the world (including when beyond cell phone range) by using the Iridium satellite constellation. By pairing with a smart phone, navigation is possible with access to free downloadable topographic maps and NOAA charts. On February 11, 2016, the company announced that it had been purchased by Garmin, a multinational producer of GPS products and services.
DeLorme also produces printed atlas and topographic software products. The company combines digital technologies with human editors to verify travel information and map details. DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer is a complement to a vehicle’s GPS or online mapping site, allowing a traveler to browse and highlight the anticipated route and the possible activities or excursions along the way or at the destination. DeLorme’s Topo software is one of the sources of North American trail, logging road and terrain data for outdoor enthusiasts. Topo 10 has US and Canada topographic maps and elevation data with more than four million places of interest. Topo includes comprehensive park, lake, river and stream data for all 50 states. DeLorme continues to sell paper atlases, with more than 20 million copies sold to date.
Founded in 1976, DeLorme is headquartered in Yarmouth, Maine, and is home to Eartha, the world's largest revolving globe.
History
The company was founded in 1976 by David DeLorme, who, being frustrated over obsolete back-country maps of the Moosehead Lake region of Maine, vowed to create a better map of Maine.
DeLorme combined state highway, county, and town maps as well as federal surveys to produce the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer which was printed in a large-format book with an initial printing of 10,000, which he marketed out of his car. The Gazetteer, which listed bicycle trails, canoeing and kayaking trips, and museum and historic sites, proved quite successful.
The company expanded to 75 employees in 1986, working from a Quonset hut in Freeport, Maine, producing maps for New England and upstate New York.
In 1987, the company produced a CD with detailed topographic map data of the entire world.
In 1991, DeLorme began vending Street Atlas USA on a single CD-ROM, becoming the most popular street-map CD in the United States, as well as one of the first mass consumer CD-ROM software products of any kind.
By 1995, DeLorme had 44 percent of the market share for CD maps. The same year the company partnered with the American Automobile Association (AAA) to produce the AAA Map 'n Go, the first mapping product to generate automatic routing. They also introduced the DeLorme GPS receiver to work with its maps.
In 1996, it introduced its maps into the PDA environment via Palm.
In 1997, the company relocated to a new corporate campus in Yarmouth, Maine, that features a giant model of the world, named Eartha, the largest rotating globe in the world. The company has provided complimentary geographic educational sessions for thousands of school children over the years and the public is welcome to visit and see Eartha from the three-story balconies.
In 1999, DeLorme introduced 3D TopoQuad DVD and CD products, which include digitized U.S. topographic maps.
In 2001, XMap professional GIS map program was produced on CD, and an expanded XMap was released in 2002, modified to provide GPS functionality to Palm OS and Pocket PC.
In 2004, DeLorme became the first company to sell a USB GPS device, the Earthmate GPS LT-20. At the same time, it began offering downloadable satellite and USGS 7.5-minute quads that could be overlaid on its maps using a new NetLink feature. Earlier models of Earthmate were among the first GPS receivers tethered to laptops.
In 2006/2007, the firm introduced its first full-featured GPS standalone receiver, the Earthmate GPS PN-20. During 2008, the company continued expanding its handheld GPS line with the Earthmate GPS PN-40 model. DeLorme also began selling OEM GPS modules allowing other manufacturers to add GPS to their products. In addition, the company began selling data to businesses.
In 2009, DeLorme released D.A.E. (Digital Atlas of the Earth). It is the first worldwide GPS accurate topographical map with a scale of 1 to 50,000. D.A.E. is the official world map for the US and Australian militaries. It is a virtual globe of the earth that is almost 1,000 feet in diameter.
Acquisition
On February 11, 2016, GPS products and services company Garmin announced it had agreed to purchase DeLorme. The announcement stated operations at DeLorme's Yarmouth facility would continue. Another announcement (March 3, 2016) confirmed the acquisition was complete.
See also
Maps of the United States
Geospatial
Trail maps
References
External links
DeLorme website
LaptopGPSworld.com: Review of DeLorme Street Atlas 2008
inReach website
Facebook: DeLormeGPS
Twitter: DeLormeGPS
Map companies of the United States
Software companies based in Maine
Atlases
Cartography
GIS companies
GIS software
Global Positioning System
Navigation system companies
Route planning software
Companies based in Cumberland County, Maine
Yarmouth, Maine
American companies established in 1976
Publishing companies established in 1976
Software companies established in 1976
1976 establishments in Maine
2016 mergers and acquisitions
Garmin
Software companies of the United States |
62737 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger%20%28protocol%29 | Finger (protocol) | In computer networking, the Name/Finger protocol and the Finger user information protocol are simple network protocols for the exchange of human-oriented status and user information.
Name/Finger protocol
The Name/Finger protocol is based on Request for Comments document (December 1977) as an interface to the name and finger programs that provide status reports on a particular computer system or a particular person at network sites. The finger program was written in 1971 by Les Earnest who created the program to solve the need of users who wanted information on other users of the network. Information on who is logged in was useful to check the availability of a person to meet. This was probably the earliest form of presence information for remote network users.
Prior to the finger program, the only way to get this information was with a who program that showed IDs and terminal line numbers (the server's internal number of the communication line, over which the user's terminal is connected) for logged-in users. Earnest named his program after the idea that people would run their fingers down the who list to find what they were looking for.
The term "finger" has a definition of "to snitch" or "to identify": this made "finger" a good reminder/mnemonic to the semantic of the UNIX finger command (a client in the protocol context).
Finger user information protocol
The finger daemon runs on TCP port 79. The client will (in the case of remote hosts) open a connection to port 79. An RUIP (Remote User Information Program) is started on the remote end of the connection to process the request. The local host sends the RUIP one line query based upon the Finger query specification, and waits for the RUIP to respond. The RUIP receives and processes the query, returns an answer, then initiates the close of the connection. The local host receives the answer and the close signal, then proceeds to close its end of the connection.
The Finger user information protocol is based on (The Finger User Information Protocol, December 1991). Typically the server side of the protocol is implemented by a program fingerd or in.fingerd (for finger daemon), while the client side is implemented by the name and finger programs which are supposed to return a friendly, human-oriented status report on either the system at the moment or a particular person in depth. There is no required format, and the protocol consists mostly of specifying a single command line.
The program would supply information such as whether a user is currently logged-on, e-mail address, full name etc. As well as standard user information, finger displays the contents of the .project and .plan files in the user's home directory. Often this file (maintained by the user) contains either useful information about the user's current activities, similar to micro-blogging, or alternatively all manner of humor.
Security concerns
Supplying such detailed information as e-mail addresses and full names was considered acceptable and convenient in the early days of networking, but later was considered questionable for privacy and security reasons.
Finger information has been used by hackers as a way to initiate a social engineering attack on a company's computer security system. By using a finger client to get a list of a company's employee names, email addresses, phone numbers, and so on, a hacker can call or email someone at a company requesting information while posing as another employee.
The finger daemon has also had several exploitable security holes crackers have used to break into systems. For example, in 1988 the Morris worm exploited an overflow vulnerability in fingerd (among others) to spread.
For these reasons, by the late 1990s the vast majority of sites on the Internet no longer offered the service.
Application support
It is implemented on Unix, Unix-like systems (like macOS), and current versions of Windows (finger.exe command). Other software has finger support:
ELinks
Lynx
Minuet
Kristall
Lagrange
See also
LDAP
Ph Protocol
Social network service
WebFinger
References
External links
(December 1977)
(December 1991)
Linux finger command
History of the Finger protocol by Rajiv Shah
Microsoft TechNet Finger article
Finger.Farm: Modern Finger Hosting
Internet protocols
Internet Standards
OS/2 commands
Unix user management and support-related utilities
Unix network-related software
Windows administration
1977 software |
50587818 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca%20Moore%20%28scientist%29 | Rebecca Moore (scientist) | Rebecca Moore is an American software engineer, director of Google Earth, and director and founder of the Google Earth Outreach and Google Earth Engine computer mapping projects.
Early life and career
Moore grew up in Roslyn, New York, with one sister and two brothers. Her father, Earle K. Moore, was a communications and civil rights lawyer in Manhattan, who won a landmark case establishing that broadcast stations must serve the interests of their viewers. Her brother, Frank C. Moore, was an artist and activist, including being an originator of the Red Ribbon project for AIDS solidarity. (Rebecca Moore completed his work setting up the Gesso Foundation for artists after his death.) She attended Roslyn High School, graduated Brown University with a bachelor's degree with honors in Artificial Intelligence in 1977, then worked as a software engineer for companies including Hewlett-Packard and General Instrument.
When her father died in 2001, then her brother Frank in early 2002, Moore felt a duty to accomplish something in her life, as they had. She returned to academia to study bioinformatics, to treat disease with the help of computer analysis, earning a master's degree in cognitive psychology from Stanford University, but left after three years before completing her PhD in computer science.
Moore was then living in Los Gatos, California, in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, a rural area that was poorly served by government agencies; an ambulance took 2 hours to reach a neighbor's house, partly because they were using a hand-drawn map from 1983. So Moore founded a civic association, the Mountain Resource Group, and began work on digital maps of the area. They were used by first responders, civil agencies, and her neighbors. She used consumer software, then professional geographic information systems software, before settling on Keyhole, Inc's Earth Viewer.
Google Earth
Moore was an active user of Keyhole's Earth Viewer software, enough so that in 2005 she was invited by the company to give a tech talk on using the product. She gave a list of eight to ten specific suggestions to improve the tool. Google had recently acquired Keyhole, Inc (in October 2004), and offered her a job on the project, which would become Google Earth.
Google Earth Outreach
Google gives its employees 20% time, the ability to use a fifth of their hours to work on side projects, and Moore used hers to work on what would become Google Earth Outreach, acting as a link between the mapping software and the environmental community. Brian McClendon, a co-founder of Keyhole, Inc. then a VP leading Google Earth, was a strong supporter of the idea from the beginning, and made sure Google provided the funds.
In August 2005, the San Jose Water Company submitted a proposal to log a 1000-acre swathe of redwood trees in the Los Gatos Mountains, and sent copies to Moore and her neighbors. Moore started a subgroup of her civic association, Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging, to oppose the project, and used the Google Earth application to create a detailed map, including a 3-D "flyover" movie, displaying the area that would be logged in relationship to the mountains and the local watershed. It demonstrated that logging trucks would be taking winding roads used by children to walk to school, and that helicopters would be carrying large tree trunks over homes, schools, and playgrounds. It was referenced in local and national newspapers, shown on local television news, to Ira Ruskin, the district representative in the California State Legislature, and to former vice president Al Gore, who issued a statement opposing the proposed logging. The debate went on for years; in 2006, Moore got Kenneth Adelman of the California Coastal Records Project to fly her in a helicopter over the SJWC land to take photographs to prove the water company owned more timberland than would qualify it for the open-ended logging permit that it was applying for. After a September 2007 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection hearing, the proposal was defeated. Equally important, the publicity Moore's work had gathered by using Google Earth to save a redwood forest led to contacts by many nonprofits interested in working with Google Earth Outreach.
The first Google geoblog, a Web log with the entries referenced by geographical locations in Google Earth, was a joint project with the Jane Goodall Institute in 2006. It covered the daily lives of the chimpanzees of the Gombe National Park in Tanzania, and the field researchers who studied them. The Google Earth imagery was used to draw attention to the loss of chimpanzee habitat, and to map the location of chimpanzee poaching snares. Moore was a fan of Jane Goodall's work, and personally cold called JGI to propose the cooperation. Googlers returned to Gombe in 2014 with Google Street View cameras, to map the forest from the viewpoint of a person walking its trails. Goodall herself thanked Moore in her book Seeds of Hope, for her help and her personal friendship.
Another early Google Earth Outreach project was with Appalachian Voices, which used the tools to illustrate the effects of mountaintop removal mining, with before and after pictures of 470 mountains that have been razed for coal. Within a week of the launch of their project using Google Earth in 2007, their online petition got 12,000 signatures. Yet another 2007 project was a collaboration with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about the crisis in Darfur, controversially naming it a genocide, and showing satellite pictures of razed villages and refugee camps and personal photographs and stories of people who lost families and homes. By 2013, the HALO Trust was using Google Earth to help clear landmines, by mapping cleared and yet uncleared areas; a Google Earth Outreach grant funded an online minefield tour narrated by Angelina Jolie.
Moore was among the first to support the Paiter Suruí people, an indigenous tribe of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, by teaching them to use Google's maps to preserve their culture and their land. The tribe only had its first contact with outsiders in 1969, but in the years since had seen their land destroyed by mining and logging. The tribe's chief, Almir Narayamoga Surui, the first person of his tribe to go to college, discovered Google Earth in an Internet café, and thought it could be used to help. In 2007, the Amazon Conservation Team flew him to the United States, where he met with Moore in her Mountain View office at Google Earth Outreach. In 2008, Moore and four other Google employees flew to the Amazon to teach the Suruí, many of whom had never used a computer, to use Google's tools to make maps, blogs, photos, and YouTube videos to document the loss of their land; in exchange, the Suruí painted the Googlers' skin with Jenipapo berries and made them honorary members of the tribe. The Suruí blogs drew international attention. In 2009, the Googlers returned with Android phones equipped with GPS, that the tribe could use to photograph illegal logging to present as evidence to law enforcement, and inventory trees and calculate carbon content to apply for forest carbon offsets. They became the first indigenous people to generate credit by saving rainforest, and in 2013 had sold 120,000 tons of offsets to Natura. Moore unveiled the Surui cultural map in 2012.
Google Earth Engine
Moore founded the project that would become Google Earth Engine after she was approached by Carlos Souza Jr., a geoscientist from Imazon, on that first Brazil trip to aid the Suruí tribe in 2008. Souza asked for a way to analyze satellite data to observe and prevent illegal logging which was costing the Amazon rainforest more than 1 million acres each year. The project Moore's team built harnessed tens of thousands of computers to process and monitor Google Earth's satellite images and set off alarms about suspicious changes or activity. This would alert Imazon, or the Suruí, in enough time for people to be sent out to confirm illegal logging, and then notify the authorities. Imazon says this allowed them to reduce illegal logging in Paragominas by 97 percent between 2007 and 2010. Google Earth Engine launched to the public in 2010, and is used by over a thousand scientists around the world for applications from forecasting drought and estimating agricultural crop yield, to predicting where chimpanzees are likely to build their nests.
One of the first large scale Google Earth Engine projects was a study of global forest change. Researcher Matthew Hansen had been mapping global land cover since the mid-1990s, first at South Dakota State University, then at the University of Maryland, but lacked sufficient high-resolution data. The data came in 2008, when the United States Geological Survey made 3.6 million satellite images at 30 meter resolution from the Landsat program freely available on the Internet. The computer power to fully analyze it was provided by Moore and Google Earth Engine. For the release of Google Earth Engine in 2010, Moore, Hansen, and CONAFOR the Mexican government agency, processed 53,000 images in 15,000 computer hours to create the highest resolution forest and water map of Mexico ever. Then, for a global survey of all forestation change from 2000 to 2012, cloud computers processed 700,000 images in 1 million hours spread among 10,000 CPUs. The work was made available online and the resulting joint paper was published in the November 2013 issue of Science.
Personal life
Moore credits her childhood with instilling a love of nature. Her hobbies include mountaineering and trail construction.
In May 1978, Moore went on a 33-person Brown University expedition led by Thomas A. Mutch, to climb Devistan, a peak in the Nanda Devi region of the Himalayas. One died in the attempt. Moore was one of a four-person all female team to make the summit. In 2013, she made a memorial Google Earth map of the expedition. In 1990, Moore led a team climbing mount Denali in Alaska for 28 days. More recently, Moore and her neighbors in the Mountain Resource Group have built and mapped a Community Trail Network in the Santa Cruz Mountains using Google Earth, GPS, and skills she learned from the National Outdoor Leadership School when she was 20.
Moore has publicly said that she has two dogs, but no children, as she wouldn't have been able to have children and do her work.
Awards received
June 2013 White House Champion of Change for Open Science.
September 2013 Zoological Society of London Award for Conservation Innovation.
May 2016 National Audubon Society's Rachel Carson Award.
References
External links
Mountain Resource Group
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American computer scientists
Brown University alumni
Google employees
American women computer scientists
Roslyn High School alumni
Stanford University alumni
21st-century American women scientists |
8390807 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research%20Machines%20380Z | Research Machines 380Z | The Research Machines 380Z (often called the RML 380Z or RM 380Z) was an early 8-bit microcomputer produced by Research Machines in Oxford, England, from 1977 to 1985.
Description
The 380Z used a Z80 microprocessor (hence the name) with up to 56 KB of user RAM. When fitted with an optional floppy disk drive the system ran the CP/M operating system. The basic system came with a text-only monochrome video card, which could be enhanced with a 320×192 high-resolution graphics board.
Aided by a British government subsidy to schools for half of the price the 380Z was sold mainly to educational institutions in the United Kingdom, with some also sold to industry. In 1979 a dual 8-inch disk system with 56 KB of memory cost £3266, and a 16 KB cassette-based system cost £965 (excluding VAT).
Hardware
Architecture
The 380Z was packaged in a large, black, 19-inch rack-mount, rectangular metal case containing the power supply, a number of printed circuit boards and the optional 5¼-inch floppy disk drives. The front panel had a pair of strong carrying handles, a keyswitch and a reset button. The keyswitch controlled power and also enabled the reset button. The keyboard was separate and came in a tough metal case.
Early versions were contained in a light blue metal case with a white front and had only a cassette interface or 8-inch floppy drives; only a small number of these were made. An optional 8-bit ASCII paper tape punch/reader was also used, as this was a common storage medium at the time - where previous use of a computer had been limited to a teletype machine connected to mainframe by telephone.
The system used a passive bus architecture with no motherboard – all electronics were contained on a number of cards interconnected by ribbon cable. The only microprocessor offered was a 4 MHz Z80A.
Memory
Memory was fitted in up to four banks of RAM, each of either 4 KB (4 × 1024 bytes) or 16 KB, although not every permutation was permitted. Typical configurations were 16 KB for cassette-based systems and 32, 48 or 64 KB of memory on disk-based systems. Main memory was not used by the text or graphics video cards, although memory on the video cards was bank switched into a dedicated 1.5 KB address block.
The 380Z was also fitted with up to 6 KB of firmware, known as COS. On systems fitted with less than 64 KB of RAM the COS reserved 1 KB of system RAM, leaving the rest available to the user. On the 64 KB RAM system a total of 56 KB was available to the user, with the remainder used by COS or inaccessible because of the firmware ROM, video card, and memory-mapped I/O.
Video
COS 3.4 (see below) and earlier systems came with a basic video card providing a 40×24 text-only monochrome display. Composite video output was provided for an external monitor, and an internal RF modulator provided a separate output to drive a television set. Later systems were supplied with an enhanced video card that was software-switchable between 40×24 and 80×24 character modes and supported a number of character attributes (underline, dim, reverse-video). Both card types were fitted with their own dedicated video memory.
In addition to the text-mode video card the system could be enhanced with a high-resolution graphics (HRG) board. The board was fitted with a dedicated bank of 16 KB of video memory and supported two graphics modes:
High resolution: 320×192 pixels, 2 bits per pixel (4 colours), 1 page.
Medium resolution: 160×96 pixels, 4 bits per pixel (16 colours), 2 pages.
A programmable lookup table with an 8-bit output mapped the pixel value to one of 256 different colours (analogue RGB output) or intensities (composite video).
In RGB mode, each palette index can configured by specifying the amount of each primary colour. Possible ranges are 0 to 7 for Red and Green, and 0 to 3 for Blue (ex: 000 generates black; 773 generates white). This arrangement is known as 8-bit color and also used on other machines like the MSX2 or Atari Falcon.
Output from the graphics board was mixed with output from the text-only video card, allowing text and graphics to be easily overlaid. The graphics output only covered the top 20 lines of the text display and therefore text output could be set to use only the bottom 4 lines if overlap was not desired.
Storage
Mass storage was either via cassette tape or floppy disk (which required a disk controller card). The cassette interface operated at either 300 bit/s (CUTS standard) or 1200 bit/s. COS 4.0 and later systems were not fitted with the cassette interface.
Early systems could be fitted with an optional single density floppy disk controller card that could interfaced to either internal 5¼-inch or external 8-inch floppy disk drives. Disk capacity was 80 KB per side on 5¼-inch disks and 250.25 KB per side on 8-inch disks. Double-sided disk drives were treated as two independent disks with a drive letter per side. CP/M used the first 4 tracks on 5¼-inch disks and the first 3 tracks on 8-inch disks, reducing the usable capacity of a single density, single-sided 5¼-inch disk to 72 KB.
Later systems (referred to as the 380Z-D) were fitted with a double density Intelligent Disc Controller (IDC), which increased disk capacity to either 180 KB (48 TPI drives) or 360 KB (96 TPI drives) per side on 5¼-inch disks and 500.5 KB per side on 8-inch disks. Support for a "Winchester" hard disk drive could be provided using an intelligent Host Interface Board (HIB) that implemented a SASI interface. Hard disk systems were mainly used as file servers for networked LINK 480Z systems.
Interface cards
The passive bus allowed a number of cards to be installed in the 380Z. All systems required:
CPU/RAM – holding the Z80A CPU, firmware ROMs, and up to 32 KB of RAM. The card also provided a parallel Centronics printer port (not always connected).
Video, either a VDU-40 or VDU-80 card – providing the 40×24 or the switchable 80×24/40×24 character text displays, respectively.
Other cards were optional, and included:
RAM – a second CPU/RAM board, with processor and ROMs omitted, holding up to a further 32 KB of RAM.
Floppy Disc Controller (FDC) – a single density disk controller, which also provided an RS-232 serial interface (SIO-4).
Intelligent Disc Controller (IDC) – a double density disk controller with its own dedicated microprocessor.
High Resolution Graphics (HRG) – up to 320×192 pixels.
Host Interface Board (HIB) – for hard disk support.
380Z Network Interface Board (380Z-NET) – a proprietary 800 kbit/s network interface used to interconnect to a network of LINK 480Zs.
Serial Interface-1 (SIO-1) – available as the SIO-1A (RS-232) or SIO-1B (20 mA current loop).
Serial Interface-2 (SIO-2) – available as the SIO-2 (RS-232) or SIO-2B/SIO-3 (20 mA current loop).
Serial Interface-4C (SIO-4C) – providing an SIO-4 interface on cassette systems without the FDC card.
IEEE-488 Interface.
PIO Interface Development Board – providing three Z80 PIOs and a Z80 CTC.
Analogue I/O Board – providing 16 input channels and 2 output channels.
Firmware
Boot monitor
The system firmware contained only a basic monitor program, known as COS (standing for Cassette Operating System in the COS 3.4 and earlier systems and Central Operating System in the later disk-only systems). The monitor could be used to load application programs, such as BASIC, from cassette or to boot the disk operating system. COS also provided a software front panel allowing the display of registers and memory, and supporting breakpoints and single-stepping of machine code.
The COS monitor was stored in either 4 KB (COS 3.4 and earlier) or 6 KB (COS 4.0 and later) of ROM; in the latter case part of the ROM was bank switched.
COS services
COS provided a number of basic hardware control functions, such as keyboard input, writing text to the video card and disk input/output. COS functions were called by means of the Emulator Trap (EMT) pseudo-opcode, which used the Z80 RST 30H instruction to call the EMT handler function. The EMT handler read the first byte following the RST 30H instruction to determine which EMT function was being requested; all parameters were passed in registers. A call-relative pseudo-opcode was also implemented using RST 28H.
Main COS versions
COS versions were mainly tied to the new hardware functions they supported.
COS 2.3 – cassette-only, 40×24 video card.
COS 3.0 – floppy disk support.
COS 3.4 – main COS version supporting single density disks and the 40×24 video card.
COS 4.0 – 80×24 text display, no cassette support.
COS 4.2 – double density disk drives (380Z-D).
Software
Operating systems
The main disk operating system was CP/M, initially CP/M 1.4 and later CP/M 2.2. MP/M II was used on the file server version, which supported a network of LINK 480Z computers using CP/NET.
Application software
Many standard CP/M applications were available, such as WordStar. Research Machines also produced their own assembler (ZASM), text editor (TXED) and BASIC interpreter. Brian Reffin Smith, then at the Royal College of Art in London, wrote 'Jackson', one of the first digital painting programs, which ran on the 380Z and which was distributed across UK schools.
References
External links
RM 380Z on old-computers.com
groups.io Research Machines RML380Z and 480Z Group
VT100.net page with scanned-in manuals
Early microcomputers
Personal computers
Z80-based home computers |
335157 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory-mapped%20I/O | Memory-mapped I/O | Memory-mapped I/O (MMIO) and port-mapped I/O (PMIO) are two complementary methods of performing input/output (I/O) between the central processing unit (CPU) and peripheral devices in a computer. An alternative approach is using dedicated I/O processors, commonly known as channels on mainframe computers, which execute their own instructions.
Memory-mapped I/O uses the same address space to address both memory and I/O devices. The memory and registers of the I/O devices are mapped to (associated with) address values. So a memory address may refer to either a portion of physical RAM, or instead to memory and registers of the I/O device. Thus, the CPU instructions used to access the memory can also be used for accessing devices. Each I/O device monitors the CPU's address bus and responds to any CPU access of an address assigned to that device, connecting the data bus to the desired device's hardware register. To accommodate the I/O devices, areas of the addresses used by the CPU must be reserved for I/O and must not be available for normal physical memory. The reservation may be permanent, or temporary (as achieved via bank switching). An example of the latter is found in the Commodore 64, which uses a form of memory mapping to cause RAM or I/O hardware to appear in the 0xD000-0xDFFF range.
Port-mapped I/O often uses a special class of CPU instructions designed specifically for performing I/O, such as the in and out instructions found on microprocessors based on the x86 and x86-64 architectures. Different forms of these two instructions can copy one, two or four bytes (outb, outw and outl, respectively) between the EAX register or one of that register's subdivisions on the CPU and a specified I/O port which is assigned to an I/O device. I/O devices have a separate address space from general memory, either accomplished by an extra "I/O" pin on the CPU's physical interface, or an entire bus dedicated to I/O. Because the address space for I/O is isolated from that for main memory, this is sometimes referred to as isolated I/O.
Overview
Different CPU-to-device communication methods, such as memory mapping, do not affect the direct memory access (DMA) for a device, because, by definition, DMA is a memory-to-device communication method that bypasses the CPU.
Hardware interrupts are another communication method between the CPU and peripheral devices, however, for a number of reasons, interrupts are always treated separately. An interrupt is device-initiated, as opposed to the methods mentioned above, which are CPU-initiated. It is also unidirectional, as information flows only from device to CPU. Lastly, each interrupt line carries only one bit of information with a fixed meaning, namely "an event that requires attention has occurred in a device on this interrupt line".
I/O operations can slow memory access if the address and data buses are shared. This is because the peripheral device is usually much slower than main memory. In some architectures, port-mapped I/O operates via a dedicated I/O bus, alleviating the problem.
One merit of memory-mapped I/O is that, by discarding the extra complexity that port I/O brings, a CPU requires less internal logic and is thus cheaper, faster, easier to build, consumes less power and can be physically smaller; this follows the basic tenets of reduced instruction set computing, and is also advantageous in embedded systems. The other advantage is that, because regular memory instructions are used to address devices, all of the CPU's addressing modes are available for the I/O as well as the memory, and instructions that perform an ALU operation directly on a memory operand (loading an operand from a memory location, storing the result to a memory location, or both) can be used with I/O device registers as well. In contrast, port-mapped I/O instructions are often very limited, often providing only for simple load-and-store operations between CPU registers and I/O ports, so that, for example, to add a constant to a port-mapped device register would require three instructions: read the port to a CPU register, add the constant to the CPU register, and write the result back to the port.
As 16-bit processors have become obsolete and replaced with 32-bit and 64-bit in general use, reserving ranges of memory address space for I/O is less of a problem, as the memory address space of the processor is usually much larger than the required space for all memory and I/O devices in a system. Therefore, it has become more frequently practical to take advantage of the benefits of memory-mapped I/O. However, even with address space being no longer a major concern, neither I/O mapping method is universally superior to the other, and there will be cases where using port-mapped I/O is still preferable.
Memory-mapped I/O is preferred in x86-based architectures because the instructions that perform port-based I/O are limited to one register: EAX, AX, and AL are the only registers that data can be moved into or out of, and either a byte-sized immediate value in the instruction or a value in register DX determines which port is the source or destination port of the transfer. Since any general-purpose register can send or receive data to or from memory and memory-mapped I/O devices, memory-mapped I/O uses fewer instructions and can run faster than port I/O. AMD did not extend the port I/O instructions when defining the x86-64 architecture to support 64-bit ports, so 64-bit transfers cannot be performed using port I/O.
Memory barriers
Since the caches mediate accesses to memory addresses, data written to different addresses may reach the peripherals' memory or registers out of the program order, i.e. if software writes data to an address and then writes data to another address, the cache write buffer does not guarantee that the data will reach the peripherals in that order. Any program that does not include cache-flushing instructions after each write in the sequence may see unintended IO effects if a cache system optimizes the write order. Writes to memory can often be reordered to reduce redundancy or to make better use of memory access cycles without changing the final state of what got stored; whereas, the same optimizations might completely change the meaning and effect of writes to memory-mapped I/O regions.
Lack of foresight in the choice of memory-mapped I/O regions led to many of the RAM-capacity barriers in older generations of computers. Designers rarely expected machines to grow to make full use of an architecture's theoretical RAM capacity, and thus often used some of the high-order bits of the address-space as selectors for memory-mapped I/O functions. For example, the 640 KB barrier in the IBM PC and derivatives is due to reserving the region between 640 and 1024 KB (64k segments 10 through 16) for the Upper Memory Area. This choice initially made little impact, but it eventually limited the total amount of RAM available within the 20-bit available address space. The 3 GB barrier and PCI hole are similar manifestations of this with 32-bit address spaces, exacerbated by details of the x86 boot process and MMU design. 64-bit architectures often technically have similar issues, but these only rarely have practical consequences.
Examples
A simple system built around an 8-bit microprocessor might provide 16-bit address lines, allowing it to address up to 64 kibibytes (KiB) of memory. On such a system, the first 32 KiB of address space may be allotted to random access memory (RAM), another 16 KiB to read only memory (ROM) and the remainder to a variety of other devices such as timers, counters, video display chips, sound generating devices, etc.
The hardware of the system is arranged so that devices on the address bus will only respond to particular addresses which are intended for them, while all other addresses are ignored. This is the job of the address decoding circuitry, and that establishes the memory map of the system. As a result, system's memory map may look like in the table on the right. This memory map contains gaps, which is also quite common in actual system architectures.
Assuming the fourth register of the video controller sets the background colour of the screen, the CPU can set this colour by writing a value to the memory location A003 using its standard memory write instruction. Using the same method, graphs can be displayed on a screen by writing character values into a special area of RAM within the video controller. Prior to cheap RAM that enabled bit-mapped displays, this character cell method was a popular technique for computer video displays (see Text user interface).
Basic types of address decoding
Address decoding types, in which a device may decode addresses completely or incompletely, include the following:
Complete (exhaustive) decoding
1:1 mapping of unique addresses to one hardware register (physical memory location). Involves checking every line of the address bus.
Incomplete (partial) decoding
n:1 mapping of n unique addresses to one hardware register. Partial decoding allows a memory location to have more than one address, allowing the programmer to reference a memory location using n different addresses. It may also be done to simplify the decoding hardware by using simpler and often cheaper logic that examines only some address lines, when not all of the CPU's address space is needed. Commonly, the decoding itself is programmable, so the system can reconfigure its own memory map as required, though this is a newer development and generally in conflict with the intent of being cheaper.
Synonyms: foldback, multiply mapped, partially mapped, address aliasing.
Linear decoding
Address lines are used directly without any decoding logic. This is done with devices such as RAMs and ROMs that have a sequence of address inputs, and with peripheral chips that have a similar sequence of inputs for addressing a bank of registers. Linear addressing is rarely used alone (only when there are few devices on the bus, as using purely linear addressing for more than one device usually wastes a lot of address space) but instead is combined with one of the other methods to select a device or group of devices within which the linear addressing selects a single register or memory location.
Port I/O via device drivers
In Windows-based computers, memory can also be accessed via specific drivers such as DOLLx8KD which gives I/O access in 8-, 16- and 32-bit on most Windows platforms starting from Windows 95 up to Windows 7. Installing I/O port drivers will ensure memory access by activating the drivers with simple DLL calls allowing port I/O and when not needed, the driver can be closed to prevent unauthorized access to the I/O ports.
Linux provides the utility to allow reading from and writing to MMIO addresses. The Linux kernel also allows tracing MMIO access from kernel modules (drivers) using the kernel's mmiotrace debug facility. To enable this, the Linux kernel should be compiled with the corresponding option enabled. mmiotrace is used for debugging closed-source device drivers.
See also
mmap, not to be confused with memory-mapped I/O
Memory-mapped file
Early examples of computers with port-mapped I/O
PDP-8
Nova
PDP-11, an early example of a computer architecture using memory-mapped I/O
Unibus, a dedicated I/O bus used by the PDP-11
Input/output base address
Bank switching
Ralf Brown's Interrupt List
Coprocessor
Direct memory access
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)
References
Input/output |
32068127 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hylemetry | Hylemetry | The term hylemetry, in modern-day parlance, refers to a type of banknote authentication, invented by G. Schirripa Spagnolo in 2008. It was used for the first time in an international context in 2010. The hylemetric approach is based, as for biometry, in the identification of a unique random characteristic, used to create a template, which can uniquely identifying the object. Hylemetric identification requires properties which are unique, permanent, measurable, and non-invasive, i.e., that the characteristics can be measured without modifying anything. A typical example is the security metallic fibers distributed inside banknotes.
Background
It is a composition of two Greek words: Hyle and Metros. Aristotle used the term ὕλη (hyle) to mean non-living matter. Since biometric identification has given excellent results, it comes naturally to apply similar criteria to uniquely identify "non-living matter", such as banknotes.
Process
The hylemetric approach is based, as for biometry, in the identification of a unique random characteristic, used to create a template, which can uniquely identifying the object. In theory, every random and irreproducible characteristic could be used in hylemetric identification. However, a valid feature also needs the following properties:
uniqueness, which indicates that no two objects should be the same in terms of the characteristic,
permanence, which means that the characteristic should be invariant with time,
collectability, which indicates that the characteristic can be measured quantitatively,
non-invasive, which indicates that the characteristics can be measured without modifying anything.
Banknote authentication
A typical example is the security metallic fibers distributed inside banknotes. These, as can be seen in the image (right), are put inside paper pulp during the making of banknote paper, so their distribution and number is absolutely random. It is possible to create a Hylemetric Template, which uniquely identifies a particular banknote, starting from the analysis of the fibers distribution. This approach is also valid for all non-living matter, after having identified one or more correct characteristics.
See also
Biometrics
Biostatistics
References
Authentication methods
Security technology |
62739647 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave%20Taht | Dave Taht | Dave Täht (born August 11, 1965) is an American computer scientist, musician, lecturer, asteroid exploration advocate, and Internet activist. He is the CEO of TekLibre, LLC.
Activity
Täht co-founded the Bufferbloat Project with Jim Gettys, runs the CeroWrt and Make-Wifi-Fast sub-projects, and referees the bufferbloat related mailing lists and related research activities.
With a long running goal of one day building an internet with sufficiently low latency and jitter that "you could plug your piano into the wall and play with a drummer across town", he is a persistent and dedicated explainer of how queues across the internet (and wifi) really work, lecturing at MIT, Stanford, and other internet institutions such as APNIC.
In the early stages of the Bufferbloat project he helped prove that applying advanced AQM and Fair Queuing techniques like (FQ-CoDel) to network packet flows would break essential assumptions in existing low priority congestion controls such as bittorrent and LEDBAT and further, that it didn't matter.
His CeroWrt project showed that advanced algorithms like CODEL, FQ-CoDel, DOCSIS-PIE and Cake were effective at reducing network latency, at no cost in throughput not only at low bandwidths but scaled to 10s of GB/s and could be implemented on inexpensive hardware. CeroWrt project members also helped make OpenWrt ready for IPv6 Launch Day, and pushed all the innovations back into open source.
His successor Make-Wifi-Fast project solved the WiFi performance anomaly by extending the FQ-Codel algorithm to work on multiple WiFi chips in Linux, reducing latency under load by up to a factor of 50.
FQ-CoDel has since become the default network queuing algorithm for ethernet and WiFi in most Linux distributions, and on iOS, and OSX. It is also widely used in packet shapers. Comcast also successfully rolled out the DOCSIS-PIE AQM during the COVID crisis with observed 8-16x reductions in network latency under load across the millions of user devices tested.
In order to complete the make-wifi-fast project, by co-authoring an FCC filing and co-ordinating a worldwide protest with Vint Cerf, and many other early Internet pioneers, That successfully fought proposed FCC rules to prohibit the installation of 3rd party firmware on home routers.
He has been intensely critical of the academic network research community, extolling open access, open source code and the value of negative and repeatable results.
As one of the instigators of the IETF AQM and Packet Scheduling working group, he is the co-author of RFC8290, and a contributor to RFC8289 (CODEL), RFC7567, RFC8034, RFC7928, RFC7806, and RFC8033. He also made contributions to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard.
He is a filksinger, often performing songs like "It GPLs me", and "One First Landing" at various computer and science fiction conventions.
He serves on the Commons Conservancy board of directors.
References
External links
CeroWrt Notebook (Täht's congestion control blog)
bufferbloat.net Master Bufferbloat Project Site
1965 births
Living people
Free software programmers
American computer programmers
Linux people
Internet activists
American technology company founders
People from Ocean City, New Jersey |
35982090 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity%3A%20Original%20Sin | Divinity: Original Sin | Divinity: Original Sin is a role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios. The fourth main entry in the Divinity game series, it is a prequel to the original game Divine Divinity, and to the other main games in the series. It was first released on Microsoft Windows on 30 June 2014.
Partially funded through Kickstarter, the game ships with the editor that created it, allowing players to create their own single player and multiplayer adventures and publish them online. A re-release titled Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition, featuring an expanded storyline and new gameplay options, was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, and OS X in 2015. The game received acclaim from critics, with many praising its ability to modernize the RPG genre.
Gameplay
Original Sin is an RPG in the Divinity universe. Divinity: Original Sin concerns two heroes. The game touts turn-based action and adventure, cooperative multiplayer, an interactive world, and includes a modding tool used for creating new content.
Plot
The customizable protagonists of the game are a pair of "Source Hunters": members of an organization dedicated to eradicating a dangerous type of magic known as "Source" and its adepts. In the single player mode, the player controls them both, while in the two-player co-op, each players takes control over one of them. At the start of the game, the Source Hunters receive orders to investigate the murder of a town councilor by a suspected Sourcerer in Cyseal, a port town in southern Rivellon. Upon arrival, they find Cyseal under siege by orcs and undead and soon discover that it was orchestrated by a Sourcerer conspiracy linked to the Immaculates, a cult based in the Luculla Forest further inland. They also find evidence implicating the White Witch, guardian of the Luculla Forest, in the murder. Their search for her takes them to the fairy realm of Hiberheim, where they find her trapped in a block of ice by the Immaculates' leader, the Conduit. Upon being freed, she introduces herself as Icara and pleads guilty of accidentally killing the councilor, but the Source Hunters, having uncovered evidence of Sourcery, mass murder, and human sacrifice carried out by the Immaculates, choose to ally themselves with her against the common foe. Icara reveals to them that the Conduit is actually her own estranged sister Leandra and directs them to infiltrate the Immaculates to learn of her plans. The Source Hunters The Thunder discover that the cult has been mining a highly toxic metal named "tenebrium" in the Luculla Mines, where they also encounter "Death Knights", indestructible undead warriors created by Leandra using tenebrium and the Source to conquer Rivellon. Leandra destroys the mines in an attempt to kill the Source Hunters, but they manage to escape with her fail-safe that renders Death Knights vulnerable.
Throughout the game, the Source Hunters occasionally encounter magical crystals known as "Star Stones" (some of them transformed into "blood stones" by the Immaculates' sacrifices). Upon finding the first one, they are transported to the "Homestead", a mysterious fortress outside of regular spacetime that is immediately familiar to both of them. As they recover more Star Stones, they learn from them that the Source had originally been a benevolent magic associated with Astarte, the goddess of life, before it was corrupted by the Void, an evil force from outside of the material world. The Source Hunters themselves are revealed to be reincarnations of two ancient generals, a man and a woman, who imprisoned the Source corruption inside an artifact known as "the God Box" and were granted godlike powers to guard it. However, when a demonic being named "the Trife" persuaded Astarte to open the Box, the corruption was released again and took on the form of a giant dragon, which Astarte went on to battle for eternity in the Void. As penance for their failure, the Guardians chose to be stripped of their powers and memories and were reborn in Rivellon as ordinary humans; the Stones are, in fact, crystallized fragments of their lost memories. Deducing that the Trife is now manipulating Leandra to weaken Astarte and to unleash the Void Dragon on the world, Icara urges the Source Hunters to stop her, either by restoring the "soulforge" between the sisters (a psychic link that Leandra had severed), or by killing her if necessary.
The Source Hunters follow the Conduit's trail to the town of Hunter's Edge near the Phantom Forest, now overrun by the Immaculates, orcs, and barbarian mercenaries. They find directions left behind by the wizard Zandalor, Icara's lover and Leandra's nemesis, that point them towards an ancient Source Temple hidden deeper in the woods. Inside the Temple, they find Zandalor and learn from him that Leandra's objective is the God Box in the First Garden, which they can enter from the Homestead. In the Garden, they confront Leandra and can restore her soulforge with Icara if they have unearthed the means to do so in the Phantom Forest earlier: in this case, she recognizes how evil she has become and leaves with Icara and Zandalor to repent; otherwise, they must fight and kill her. Reaching the God Box, the Source Hunters join forces with Astarte to destroy the Trife, but not before it summons the Void Dragon itself. In a titanic battle, they manage to banish the Dragon back into the Box, and Astarte stays to guard it again for all eternity, thanking the Source Hunters and revealing to them that other gods knowingly let the Source be corrupted. The Source Hunters then leave the First Garden embark on a new adventure.
Development
A crowdfunding campaigning was launched on Kickstarter on 27 March 2013. By using the platform, Larian aimed to secure additional funds to expand the content of the game and the reactivity of the game world. The Kickstarter was successfully funded by 26 April, raising almost $950,000, with donations from other sources bringing the total to over $1,000,000 of the game's final budget of €4 million.
The game was expected to be released in late 2013, but was delayed to 28 February 2014. The release date was subsequently delayed again until 30 June 2014. Originally Larian intended to release Windows and OS X versions of the game simultaneously, and stated that once the OS X version was completed a Linux port would not be difficult. However, they decided to delay the OS X and Linux versions to focus on gameplay. Support for Linux and Mac was delivered on 23 December 2015 in the form of the Enhanced Edition of the game.
An enhanced edition version of the game, which includes new content, such as an expanded storyline and new gameplay options, was announced for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles in May 2015. The re-issue was then released for Windows on 27 October 2015, followed by Linux and OS X versions on 23 December 2015. The console version of the game was published by Focus Home Interactive. The version was also free to all the players who have already purchased the PC version of the game.
Reception
Divinity: Original Sin received generally favorable reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic, where it was Larian's highest-rated game until Original Sin II released in 2017. The game received highly positive reviews. Eurogamer described the game as "hands down the best classic-style RPG in years", and recommended the game to RPG fans, with the caveat that they should be up for a challenge. GameSpot praised the game for its complex systems, beautiful world, exciting turn-based combat, and its story. IGN wrote that the game was "one of the most rewarding RPGs to come along in years" and lauded its depth, personality, and combat challenges. PC Gamer appreciated the freedom, simulation, depth, and respect for player's choices evident in the traditional RPG. Hardcore Gamer stated that the lack of "hand holding" could discourage genre novices, and that the difficulty should be more consistent, but otherwise appreciated the game.
GameSpot named it the PC Game of the Year, while Rock, Paper, Shotgun declared it "The Best Kickstarter Of 2014".
Russian video game observer Tony Vilgotsky rated the game very high, saying in his review for Mir Fantastiki that Divinity: Original Sin isn't just another RPG about orcs and magic, but a really interesting world to live in.
Within a week of the game's release, the game had sold over 160,000 copies, and became Larian Studios' fastest-selling game. By September 2014, the game had sold over 500,000 copies.
Sequel
A sequel to the game, titled Divinity: Original Sin II, was released on 14 September 2017.
A board game version of the game was launched on Kickstarter in November 2019.
References
External links
2014 video games
Cooperative video games
Crowdfunded video games
Fantasy video games
Focus Entertainment games
Indie video games
Kickstarter-funded video games
Linux games
MacOS games
PlayStation 4 games
Role-playing video games
Tactical role-playing video games
Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender
Video game prequels
Video games developed in Belgium
Video games with user-generated gameplay content
Windows games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Video games with Steam Workshop support
Xbox One games
Early access video games
Astarte |
69907759 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial%20minorities%20in%20STEM%20fields | Racial minorities in STEM fields | According to the National Science Foundation women and racial minorities are underrepresented in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Scholars, governments, and scientific organizations from around the world have noted a variety of explanations contributing to this lack of racial diversity, including higher levels of discrimination, implicit bias, microaggressions, chilly climate, lack of role models and mentors, and less academic preparation.
Race imbalance in STEM in the United States
Racial minorities, with the exception of Asian Americans, are underrepresented through every stage of the STEM pipeline.
Education and degree attainment
Racial disparities in high school completion are a prominent reason for racial imbalances in STEM fields. While only 1.8% of Asian and 4.1% of White students drop out of high school, 5.6% of Black, 7.7% of Hispanic, 8.0% of Pacific Islander, and 9.6% of American Indian/Alaskan Native students drop out of high school. Among those that graduate high school, 67% of Whites, 62% of Blacks, and 69% of Hispanics enroll in a “degree granting college.” While there is no measurable difference in college enrollment of White, Black, and Hispanic STEM students, only 15% of Black students who initially enrolled in a STEM major received a STEM bachelor's degree at graduation, compared to 30% of White and Asian students.
Employment, occupation, and income
According to the National Science Board, which provides statistical data on the U.S. labor force, Asians represent 9%, Whites 65%, Hispanics 14%, and Blacks 9% of the STEM labor force. In particular, white men are 49% of the STEM labor force. Among different STEM fields, Blacks make up only 4% of life science, 5% of engineering, 6% of physical sciences, 7% of the computer science, 9% of math and 11% of health-related sciences. There are also significant wage gaps between women, men, and people of color, especially in STEM jobs. An example of this disadvantage is the gender pay gap and racial pay gap in computer science fields, where women earn about 74% of what men earn and the median income for White workers is approximately 23.2% more than the median income for Blacks. The gender and racial pay gaps in STEM fields are significantly greater than all regular non-STEM jobs with an even greater pay gap between these gender, racial, and ethnic groups. When first being hired, 35% of women of color reported negotiating their salaries, but nearly 50% wished that they had negotiated their salary after starting the job. Many of these women reported being initially satisfied with the salary they had been offered when being hired, but later learned that they were earning much less than other workers at their same level.
Effects of underrepresentation of people of color in STEM
Among Black workers in STEM fields, 57% feel that there too little attention being directed toward adding more racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace. This lack of diveresity contributes to isolation and a lack of social support in the workplace which can increase anxiety and depression for many people of color in STEM.
Explanations for the underrepresentation for people of color
Recently, scholars have begun applying the framework of systemic racism to explain the experiences of racial minorities in STEM. Specifically, research indicates that people of color, especially blacks, experience higher levels of discrimination, incur various microaggressions, and a lack of overall mentorship and support in STEM.
Stereotypes and preconceived notions of STEM
Scientific racism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the eugenics, attempted to identify biological, intellectual, and physiological differences among races. Lasting effects of the scientific racism include racial stereotypes about students of color and preconceived notions of STEM as predominantly a white, male field. A study highlighting the underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in STEM found that Asian and White candidates were viewed as more competent and hirable than Black and Latino/a candidates. Similarly, survey results from this study show that students were much more likely to recognize and name white male STEM professionals than Black or women STEM professionals. Additionally, students of color on college campus often face prevailing societal misconceptions and assumptions that they are affirmative action beneficiaries, on sport scholarships, and/or “at-risk” students.
Stereotype threat
Students of color must contend with stereotype threat that has been found to lower academic achievement. In particular, high-achieving Black students, attempting to combat prevailing stereotypes about their lack of intelligence, while Asian students combat the prevailing model minority stereotype presuming their are biologically predisposed to mathematical ability. In particular, scholars have highlighted the phenomenon of "Black Genius" and "Asian Fail" as consequences of stereotype threat.
Stem identity
The development of a STEM identity increases the overall likelihood that a student will continue to develop scientific literacy and pursue a STEM career. The National Research Council's 2009 report describes students developing STEM identities as learning to “think about themselves as science learners and develop[ing] an identity as someone who knows about, uses and sometime[s] contributes to science.” Black girls are less likely to develop STEM identities in middle school because they have fewer science-related experiences outside of school and less confidence in their scientific ability than Asian-American, Latina, and White middle school girls, making them less likely to enter STEM fields in the future. Additionally, research demonstrates that beyond first-hand experience with science, societal norms, stereotypes, and interactions with peers, teachers, and family contribute to the development of a STEM identity.
Microaggressions
People of color and underrepresented minority groups in science, technology, engineering and math are more likely than whites to experience racial microaggressions. Studies show racial microaggressions that occur on college campus weaken students sense of belonging, make it difficult to form relationships with faculty, and contribute to less cultural alignment with STEM. At predominantly white institutions (PWI) environmental microaggressions are common in shared laboratory spaces among students and during meetings with faculty and advisors. Black female students are especially likely to feel alienated and isolated from their peers in STEM departments.
Implicit bias
Research on implicit bias demonstrates that as early as preschool teachers are likely to hold implicit bias against students of color, especially Black boys. While Black children make up 19% of preschool enrollment, they account for about half of preschool suspension. This disparity is not explained by differences in students' behavior, but rather by teachers and administrators responding differently to white and Black student behavior. Implicit biases among teachers, faculty, and colleagues makes it more difficult for students of color to form relationships, network with professionals in their fields, and find valuable mentors. Judgements placed upon people of color based on implicit biases are incredibly damaging and contribute to stereotype threat, which affects their overall performances. For instance, Black women are often assumed to be underqualified forcing them to prove that they deserve to be in those spaces as was the case of Katherine Johnson depicted in Disney's "Hidden Figures".
Additional biases exist for LGBTQAI+ people of Color who find their STEM spaces to be even more difficult. For example, a Black trans male neuroscientist was praised for work he presented and told that it was much better than his sister's. Yet, what those who praised him failed to realize was that his sister's work was his own that he completed prior to transitioning. This encounter demonstrates important intersections of sexual orientation, race and gender that further complicate the experiences of people of color in STEM.
Sense of belonging
When people do not feel welcome in a place, environment, or institution, they are less likely to feel they belong and more likely to withdraw. In particular, women and people of color often adopt individual strategies of assimilation or patriarchal bargaining in their attempt to gain acceptance. For example, Black male scientists adopt coping strategies to endure racialized interactions with colleagues and managers. Similarly, Black female undergraduates students describe coping with racism on campus by gravitating toward same-race peers, faculty, and staff. When underrepresented groups are forced to adapt or leave the field altogether, it costs STEM valuable talent and perspectives that could be used to advance scientific discoveries and advancements.
STEM pipeline
The STEM pipeline starts to narrow early as students of color face additional barriers to STEM participation in school.
Primary and secondary schools
Research indicates that racial disparities in science achievement test scores begin as early as third grade. These test score disparities were attributed to both socioeconomic status gaps between races and school qualities. In particular, Black and Hispanic students are more than double as likely to live in low-income neighborhoods compared to White students which directly contributes to less money for local public schools and indirectly less funding for STEM programs. Black and Latino/a may not always have the same access to higher level high school courses that are building blocks for success in College STEM fields. For example, those who have not taken high school trigonometry, calculus, or physics, are put at a disadvantage in terms of graduating with a STEM degree. Beyond academic preparation, experiences with STEM across various settings, including school, home, and out-of-school, help students of color see STEM careers as more possible.
College
While Black males are twice as likely as their white peers to declare a STEM major upon entering college, they are less likely to graduate with a STEM degree. Scholars point to microaggressions, a chilly climate, and lack of role models and mentors as contributing to students of color being "weeded out” of STEM majors. Additionally, one study examining Black male engineering graduate students found that microaggressions from counselors, mentors, and fellow students resulted non-normative role strain. These actors increase the likelihood that people of color leave STEM majors.
Mentorship
Because white men are still overrepresented in STEM fields there is a lack of available mentorship from faculty and scientists of color. As a result, students of color in STEM feel unheard, excluded, and lose opportunities to make connections with peers. Research does indicate that students of color at HBCU's are much more likely to perceive their mentors to be supportive and describe more positive interactions with peers.
Work
Underrepresented minorities, including women, people of color, and LGBT individuals are more vulnerable to experience discrimination, isolation, and/or harassment in their workplaces. A Pew survey of men and women in STEM indicates that 50% of women in STEM experienced gender-related discrimination at work and about 62% of Black people in STEM jobs stated they experienced racial discrimination at work. Additionally, 72% of Black STEM workers believe that facing racial discrimination is a major reason why there are not more people of color in STEM fields.
Strategies for increasing participation of people of color in STEM
Underrepresentation people of color in STEM is a problem that is rooted white supremacy and racism.
Bias training
Many scholars and organization recommend elimination of bias as a means to increase representation in STEM. Specifically, implicit bias training of students, managers, faculty, and even students is seen as one way to combat stereotypes and reduce microaggressions targeting people of color. Additionally, incorporating implicit bias statements and policies can strengthen a commitment to diversity and inclusion within institutions.
Protective factors
Those in STEM fields have recognized that there is an extensive history of poor representation of women and people of color in STEM and are working to close the gap. Addressing this issue requires a coherent and sustained effort across multiple fronts. Many would argue that single intervention does not work, but that sustainable and strategic reform in education, work place, and within our communities would put our theory in to practice. Transforming our perception of STEM in the early education years for students of color necessitates celebration of the distinct contribution that women and people of color bring to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Teachers
While many teachers are highly dedicated to reducing the race gap and actively striving to create equal opportunities in their classrooms, they can actually contribute to the STEM race gap. It is important that teachers understand that their actions impact students’ futures more than they may realize.
Role models
One of the most promoted solutions is the need for role models. While both female and male role models can be effective in recruiting women in STEM fields there is a lack of role models of color to mentor POC in STEM fields. When individuals have someone to look up to that looks like them, they are more willing to stay in the field and develop a sense of belonging. Opportunities to engage and connect with individuals in STEM allows for excitement to be a part of this community and the development of a stronger STEM identity.
Mentors
Mentors provide students the academic and social support they need to succeed in STEM, however, having same-race mentorship is an important step in retaining students of color in STEM. Not only do students of color report more positive interactions with same-race faculty, they are also more likely to develop stronger STEM identities.
Organized efforts
There is a growing number of organizations whose goal is to increase diversity in STEM fields by encouraging girls and women to thrive in STEM environments. An example of one of these organizations is Girls Who Code. Their mission is to successfully close the gender gap in new entry-level tech jobs by 2030. Girls Who Code focuses their work not only on gender diversity but also on young women who are historically underrepresented in computer science fields, including African American/Black, Hispanic or Latina, Bi/ Multiracial, Native American/Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, those who come from low-income backgrounds, specifically free and/or reduced lunch eligible, and those who have had a lack of exposure or access to computer science. Girls Who Code acknowledges and values the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender identity and expression, class, sexual orientation, ability, age, national origin, and religious/spiritual identities.
Similarly, Black girls who participated in I AM STEM, a community nonprofit organization designed to increase STEM participation among underrpresented groups, engaged directly in first-hand scientific research which contributed to stronger connections to STEM.
Another great example of organizations for the underrepresented is the Society for advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). SACNAS's mission is to advance the success of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in securing advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership in STEM fields. The organization has been working to make sure that those most underrepresented in STEM have the support they need to attain advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership. SACNAS also often points out that diverse voices bring creative solutions to our world's most pressing scientific problems and that building a national network that is innovative, powerful, and inclusive is necessary.
Important scientists, engineers, and mathematicians
Katherine Johnson
West Area Computers
Dorothy Vaughan
Mary Jackson
Raychelle Burks
Jedidiah Isler
Ellen Ochoa
Ruby Hirose
Rebecca Lee Crumpler
France A. Cordova
Claudia Alexander
Susan La Flesche Picotte
Alice Ball
Janaki Ammal
Linda Garcia Cubero
Hedy Lamarr
Nadine Caron
Neil deGrasse Tyson
John Herrington
Mary G. Ross
Luis Walter Alvarez
Ella Cara Deloria
Witri Wahyu Lestari
Aaron Yazzie
Nanibaa' Garrison
See also
Racial discrimination
Imposter syndrome
Racial Diversity in United States Schools
Internalized Racism
Institutional Racism
White Privilege
Racial Wage gap
Gender Wage gap
Socialization
Racism
Patriarchal bargain
Girls Who Code
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science
Glass cliff
Gender bias
Misogynoir
Eugenics
Stereotype Threat
Microaggressions
Harassment
Microaggression
Gendered Racism
Scientific Racism
Golem Effect
Discrimination
Women in STEM
STEM Pipeline
Structural Inequality in Education
Underrepresented Groups in STEM
Pygmalion effect
Implicit Stereotype
John Henryism
Minority stress
Gender Inequality
Weathering hypothesis
Educational psychology
Social stratification
Sexism
Racism
Racial equality
Menopause in the workplace
Gender inequality
Gender polarization
Hidden FIgures
Marginalization
Microinequity
Transgender inequality
Affirmative action
Gender and education
Gender equality
References
Engineering education
Science education
Women in science and technology |
2079456 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji%20Park | Shivaji Park | Shivaji Park, is a public park situated in Dadar, Mumbai. It is the largest park in the island city. Similar but bigger in size to Azad Maidan and August Kranti Maidan (formerly Gowalia Tank Grounds), it is of historical and cultural value because of the political and social gatherings it has witnessed, both in pre- and post-independence Mumbai. The of open space is renowned as having been a cradle of the game of cricket in India. The park has a variety of sports facilities including cricket nets, Tennis court, a Mallakhamba area and a football pitch amongst others.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation renamed the park from Shivaji Park to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park on 12 March 2020.
<ref>{{cite news |title=On Shivaji Jayanti, Mumbais Shivaji Park gets new name |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/on-shivaji-jayanti-mumbais-shivaji-park-gets-new-name/1759494 |access-date=12 March 2020 |work=Outlook |date=12 March 2020}}</ref>
Geography
The open ground or maidan is flanked around its edge by a katta, a simple continuous low kerb edging that forms a makeshift seat - a popular hangout for the young and old alike. The paved walkway around this perimeter is crowded with joggers and people taking walks. The inner circumference of the park is . The maidan area covers , more than half of which is occupied by 31 tenants, the largest being clubs such as the Shivaji Park Gymkhana, and the Bengal Club. The remaining part of the ground and open spaces is available to the public for sports and other activities. Other structures dotting the periphery of the grounds include the Samarth Vyayam Mandir (a gymnasium), Shivaji Park Nagarik Sangh (established in 1947), a children's playground, a park for the elderly called Nana-Nani Park, or Grandparents Park, the Scout's Pavilion, a Hindu temple dedicated to Ganesh, and a community library. The walkway is lined with large rain trees.
The most prominent entrance to the park is the one on the east side, intended only for pedestrians. A bust of Meenatai Thackeray, late wife of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, has been placed at this entrance. Previously a bust of Ram Ganesh Gadkari was present at the same spot. Bal Thackeray himself was cremated here.
History
The park was established in 1925 by the Bombay Municipal Corporation, during British Rule. It was known as the Mahim Park until 1927, when it was renamed after the 17th century king of the region, Shivaji, at the behest of a municipal councilor, Avantika Gohkale. The Shivaji Park Gymkhana, then known as the Dadar Hindu Gymkhana, opened its first Tennis court on the grounds in 1927 and inaugurated its pavilion in November 1931.
Besides being a venue for gatherings of freedom fighters in British India, after independence in 1947, Shivaji Park was the focal point of the Samyukta Maharashtra Chalval'' (the struggle for a consolidated Maharashtra) that led to the present Indian state of Maharashtra being formed in 1960. During this period, the legendary writer, journalist, playwright, poet and social leader Acharya Prahlad Keshav Atre led this movement, addressing crowds of hundreds of thousands at this ground, earning him the title of the 'Lord of Shivaji Park'.
Shivaji Park has been integral to the political gatherings of the local political party Shiv Sena, and has witnessed numerous other political rallies. In May 2010, the Bombay High Court declared the ground a silence zone after local residents filed a public interest litigation suit in September 2009, complaining about the noise pollution in the area on account of political rallies and gatherings.
For 95 years this park was known as Shivaji Park. Total of 4 generations know it as Shivaji Park. Now the Official name of this park is Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park but it will always be in the heart of the citizens of dadar as Shivaji Park.
Statue
The statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, found on the western side of the park is one of the very few statues in which he is depicted without having drawn out his sword. Instead, Shivaji is shown simply leading the way with his arm outstretched. Sculpted in 1966 using donations from the local population, the statue is a rare example of the pacifist policies of the then state government of Maharashtra. It was considered a sensitive issue by the government to let this statue not depict the usual confrontational posture of Shivaji, who had fought many battles against the Mughal Empire.
Cricket
Shivaji Park is renowned as the cradle of Indian cricket. It is home to eight cricket clubs, such as those of Anna Vaidya and Ramakant Acharekar, which produced several international cricket players for India.
Renowned Players:-
Some famous players who have trained here are Sachin Tendulkar, Ajit Wadekar, Vijay Manjrekar, Eknath Solkar, Chandrakant Pandit, Lalchand Rajput, Sandeep Patil, Ajit Agarkar, Pravin Amre, Vinod Kambli, Ajinkya Rahane and now Prithvi Shaw.
Surroundings
The area surrounding the park has many buildings dating back to the mid-1900s, and the Shivaji Park Residential Zone is some of the more sought-after real estate in Mumbai. The predominantly Marathi neighbourhood is home to well-known personalities from literature, theatre, commerce and sports.
Some prominent residents include:
Manohar Joshi – politician, former chief minister of Maharashtra, and speaker of the Lok Sabha
Raj Thackeray – politician and founder of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
Anup Jalota – musician and Bhajan singer
Milind Soman – actor and model
Sunil Prabhu – politician and former mayor of the city of Mumbai
Ajit Agarkar – Indian cricketer
Ajit Wadekar – Indian cricketer
Sandeep Patil – Indian cricketer
Sachin Tendulkar - Indian cricketer
Dada Kondke – actor and film producer
See also
Dadar
Shivaji Park Residential Zone
References
External links
Satellite view of Shivaji Park
Shivaji Park Instagram Page
Neighbourhoods in Mumbai
Parks in Mumbai
Monuments and memorials to Shivaji
1925 establishments in India |
592687 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network%20security | Network security | Network security consists of the policies, processes and practices adopted to prevent, detect and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. Network security involves the authorization of access to data in a network, which is controlled by the network administrator. Users choose or are assigned an ID and password or other authenticating information that allows them access to information and programs within their authority. Network security covers a variety of computer networks, both public and private, that are used in everyday jobs: conducting transactions and communications among businesses, government agencies and individuals. Networks can be private, such as within a company, and others which might be open to public access. Network security is involved in organizations, enterprises, and other types of institutions. It does as its title explains: it secures the network, as well as protecting and overseeing operations being done. The most common and simple way of protecting a network resource is by assigning it a unique name and a corresponding password.
Network security concept
Network security starts with authentication, commonly with a username and a password. Since this requires just one detail authenticating the user name—i.e., the password—this is sometimes termed one-factor authentication. With two-factor authentication, something the user 'has' is also used (e.g., a security token or 'dongle', an ATM card, or a mobile phone); and with three-factor authentication, something the user 'is' is also used (e.g., a fingerprint or retinal scan).
Once authenticated, a firewall enforces access policies such as what services are allowed to be accessed by the network users. Though effective to prevent unauthorized access, this component may fail to check potentially harmful content such as computer worms or Trojans being transmitted over the network. Anti-virus software or an intrusion prevention system (IPS) help detect and inhibit the action of such malware. An anomaly-based intrusion detection system may also monitor the network like wireshark traffic and may be logged for audit purposes and for later high-level analysis. Newer systems combining unsupervised machine learning with full network traffic analysis can detect active network attackers from malicious insiders or targeted external attackers that have compromised a user machine or account.
Communication between two hosts using a network may be encrypted to maintain security and privacy.
Honeypots, essentially decoy network-accessible resources, may be deployed in a network as surveillance and early-warning tools, as the honeypots are not normally accessed for legitimate purposes. Honeypots are placed at a point in the network where they appear vulnerable and undefended, but they are actually isolated and monitored. Techniques used by the attackers that attempt to compromise these decoy resources are studied during and after an attack to keep an eye on new exploitation techniques. Such analysis may be used to further tighten security of the actual network being protected by the honeypot. A honeypot can also direct an attacker's attention away from legitimate servers. A honeypot encourages attackers to spend their time and energy on the decoy server while distracting their attention from the data on the real server. Similar to a honeypot, a honeynet is a network set up with intentional vulnerabilities. Its purpose is also to invite attacks so that the attacker's methods can be studied and that information can be used to increase network security. A honeynet typically contains one or more honeypots.
Security management
Security management for networks is different for all kinds of situations. A home or small office may only require basic security while large businesses may require high-maintenance and advanced software and hardware to prevent malicious attacks from hacking and spamming. In order to minimize susceptibility to malicious attacks from external threats to the network, corporations often employ tools which carry out network security verifications.
Types of attack
Networks are subject to attacks from malicious sources. Attacks can be from two categories: "Passive" when a network intruder intercepts data traveling through the network, and "Active" in which an intruder initiates commands to disrupt the network's normal operation or to conduct reconnaissance and lateral movements to find and gain access to assets available via the network.
Types of attacks include:
Passive
Network
Wiretapping
Passive Port scanner
Idle scan
Encryption
Traffic analysis
Active:
Virus
Eavesdropping
Data modification
See also
References
Further reading
Case Study: Network Clarity , SC Magazine 2014
Cisco. (2011). What is network security?. Retrieved from cisco.com
Security of the Internet (The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommunications vol. 15. Marcel Dekker, New York, 1997, pp. 231–255.)
Introduction to Network Security , Matt Curtin, 1997.
Security Monitoring with Cisco Security MARS, Gary Halleen/Greg Kellogg, Cisco Press, Jul. 6, 2007.
Self-Defending Networks: The Next Generation of Network Security, Duane DeCapite, Cisco Press, Sep. 8, 2006.
Security Threat Mitigation and Response: Understanding CS-MARS, Dale Tesch/Greg Abelar, Cisco Press, Sep. 26, 2006.
Securing Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls, Greg Abelar, Cisco Press, May 27, 2005.
Deploying Zone-Based Firewalls, Ivan Pepelnjak, Cisco Press, Oct. 5, 2006.
Network Security: PRIVATE Communication in a PUBLIC World, Charlie Kaufman | Radia Perlman | Mike Speciner, Prentice-Hall, 2002.
Network Infrastructure Security, Angus Wong and Alan Yeung, Springer, 2009. |
1117767 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YMODEM | YMODEM | YMODEM is a file transfer protocol used between microcomputers connected together using modems. It was primarily used to transfer files to and from bulletin board systems. YMODEM was developed by Chuck Forsberg as an expansion of XMODEM and was first implemented in his CP/M YAM program. Initially also known as YAM, it was formally given the name "YMODEM" in 1985 by Ward Christensen, author of the original XMODEM.
YMODEM extended XMODEM in three ways, combining features found in other extended XMODEM varieties. Like XMODEM-CRC, YMODEM replaced the 8-bit checksum with a 16-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC), but made it the default form of correction instead of optional. From TeLink it added the "block 0" header that sent the filename and size, which allowed batch transfers (multiple files in a single session) and eliminated the need to add padding at the end of the file. Finally, YMODEM allowed the block size to be increased from the original 128 bytes of data to 1024, as in XMODEM-1k, which greatly improved throughput on faster modems.
Forsberg built the standard with all of these features as runtime options, allowing a single protocol driver to fall back to XMODEM-CRC or even XMODEM when connecting to non-YAM systems. He believed that programmers would want to implement as many of these features as possible on any given platform. He was dismayed to find that the majority of implementations were actually providing nothing more than 1k block size with CRC-16, failing to implement the "block 0" while continuing to use the YMODEM name. The result was the release of many mutually incompatible YMODEM implementations, and the use of the name YMODEM Batch to clearly indicate those versions that did support the complete standard.
Features
XMODEM
The original XMODEM was a very simple protocol and that is the reason for its success; it could be implemented on practically any machine of the era, even those with very limited processors and storage. It worked by breaking up the data to be sent into 128-byte packets, adding a 3-byte header and 1-byte checksum footer, and sending the resulting 132-byte packets out in order. The receiving computer recalculated the checksum from the 128 bytes of data, and if it matched the checksum sent in the footer it sent back an ACK, and if it did not match, a NAK. When the sender received an ACK it sent the next packet, while a NAK caused it to re-send the last one.
There were a number of problems with the protocol. The use of a simple checksum meant some common errors could go unnoticed. The small packet size and requirement to wait for the ACK or NAK led to slow performance on higher speed links or ones with significant latency. Finally, as the transfer contained no details of the file, every file had to be manually started, which could be a chore when many small files were being transferred.
Solutions to these problems were developed during the early 1980s. XMODEM-CRC replaced the checksum with a 16-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC), which was much more resistant to common errors. XMODEM-1k expanded the packet size from 128 bytes to 1024, improving performance on higher-speed connections, while others, like WXMODEM and SEAlink instead introduced sliding window systems to combat both performance and latency, at the cost of some complexity. Still others, like TeLink and MODEM7, added file information so that a single transfer could contain multiple files, allowing batches of files to be sent with a single command.
YMODEM
Unfortunately, none of these expanded versions included all of these features. Chuck Forsberg, author of the CP/M "Yet Another Modem program", or YAM, decided to write a single protocol driver that supported all of these options. When the users started a transfer they could indicate which options they wanted on the command line, for instance, saying they wished to use CRC. The protocol was written so that it would attempt this style, but gracefully fall-back to match whatever capabilities the remote software did implement.
Abort
One problem with the original XMODEM was that there was no defined way to abort the transfer once started. The normal solution was to send NAKs to every subsequent packet if the user requested it. Since the XMODEM protocol defined a limit of ten NAKs to abort a send, and each packet might take a second to send, this meant there was a ten second delay where the sender continually sent data that was simply ignored.
Some implementations had added the ability to send a CAN instead of ACK or NAK at the end of a received packet to indicate an abort. Unfortunately, there was the possibility that a CAN could be generated by line noise and trigger an abort. YAM thus modified this slightly to require two CANs back-to-back, which would immediately perform a "graceful abort" on the sender end.
CRC
CRC support had been introduced in XMODEM-CRC. This was a very simple change to the original protocol; if requested, the receiver would attempt to trigger the transfer by sending an initial C instead of a NAK. If the remote sender supported the CRC option, it would begin sending packets as normal, but with a 16-bit CRC in the footer rather than the 1-byte checksum. YAM supported this option with no changes.
1k
1024-byte packets had been introduced in XMODEM-1k. This version did not change the trigger character from the receiver, so there was no way for the sender to know whether the receiver supported larger packets. Instead, XMODEM-1k was presented as a separate protocol on both ends of the connection. When such a connection was started, the sender could choose to send either 1024 bytes in a packet or 128, indicating the larger with an STX character in the header rather than the normal SOH. Normally only the last few packets would use the smaller packets, to avoid sending large amounts of padding. 1k also assumed CRC for all connections. YAM supported 1k with no changes.
Zero packet
In order to support automated transfers of FidoNet mail, MODEM7 introduced the ability to send the filename as plain text before sending the first block of data. This was not reliable, and TeLink improved this by placing the filename, and optionally other data like the creation date and file length, in a complete 128-byte packet. XMODEM started transfers with packet number one, so TeLink sent this packet as number zero. This "zero packet" or "block zero" became common in other FidoNet systems like SEAlink and others.
YAM supported the zero packet format, but it was ignored by many 3rd party implementations of YMODEM. When one implementation attempted to send the zero packet to a non-aware version, the receiver would naturally NAK the packet, as packet zero is illegal. The sender would then see the NAK as a transmission error and try to send the packet again, attempting this ten times before failing.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, many implementations of YMODEM did not implement this feature. Because they were unaware of it, they sent a NAK, triggering a series of resend attempts before failing out. This meant that if the user chose to use a compliant YMODEM with a non-compliant version, the transfers would fail. Nevertheless, such non-compliant versions were common.
As a result, it was common to see both YMODEM and YMODEM Batch listed as two separate protocols. Further confusion was created by the similarity between XMODEM-1k and these non-compliant YMODEMs, which were similar to the point that they were often incorrectly listed as the same.
Streaming support
YMODEM-g is a streaming variant used for error-free connections. It does not wait for an ACK to be received before sending the next packet. The protocol is faster than YMODEM because no latency is introduced between packets, but has no capability for correcting errors. It is reliant on the underlying connection being error-free, which is the case for modems supporting MNP for instance.
Normally, a YMODEM transfer would be started by the receiver sending a C to indicate it wants to use the 128-byte format with CRC, or NAK if it wishes to use the original checksum system. When g-protocol is desired, the transfer is instead triggered by sending a G. If the sender does not support the g-protocol, it considers this to be an error and ignores it, but if it does support g it begins sending packets in a continual stream. It only expects a single ACK after the final packet is received, which is indicated by the presence of an EOT character in the data. YMODEM-g assumes 1k packets are available.
However, despite this protocol potentially being faster than ZMODEM it was still rarely used. This was partially due to the lack of other functionality, but also a more serious issue. Before the emergence of the 16550 UART, there was a substantial risk of buffer overrun on the serial port. Although this would be detected by YMODEM-g it could not be corrected since no block re-transmission is possible. The receiver would have to cancel and restart the whole transmission from the beginning. ZMODEM on the other hand has transfer resume capability which made it more appealing.
References
XMODEM / YMODEM Protocol Reference by Chuck Forsberg, October 10, 1985
XMODEM / YMODEM Protocol Reference by Chuck Forsberg, June 18, 1988 (document reformatted October 14, 1988) (HTML version with text issues)
BBS file transfer protocols |
60687648 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO%2022300 | ISO 22300 | ISO 22300:2021, Security and resilience – Vocabulary, is an international standard developed by ISO/TC 292 Security and resilience. This document defines terms used in security and resilience standards and includes 360 terms and definitions. This edition was published in the beginning of 2021 and replaces the second edition from 2018.
Scope and contents
ISO 22300:2018 contains definitions for the following terms:
activity
affected area
after-action report
alert
all clear
all-hazards
alternate worksite
appropriate law enforcement and other government officials
area at risk
asset
attack
attribute data management system, ADMS
audit
auditor
authentic material good
authentication
authentication element
authentication function
authentication solution
authentication tool
authoritative source
authorized economic operator
automated interpretation
business continuity
business continuity management
business continuity management system, BCMS
business continuity plan
business continuity programme
business impact analysis
business partner
capacity
cargo transport unit
certified client
civil protection
client
closed-circuit television system, CCTV system
colour blindness
colour-code
command and control
command and control system
communication and consultation
community
community-based warning system
competence
conformity
consequence
contingency
continual improvement
conveyance
cooperation
coordination
correction
corrective action
counterfeit, verb
counterfeit good
countermeasure
covert authentication element
crisis
crisis management
crisis management team
critical control point, CCP
critical customer
critical product or service
critical supplier
criticality analysis
custodian copy
custody
disaster
disruption
document
documented information
downstream
drill
dynamic metadata
effectiveness
emergency
emergency management
entity
evacuation
evaluation
event
exercise
exercise annual plan
exercise coordinator
exercise programme
exercise programme manager
exercise project team
exercise safety officer
facility
false acceptance rate
false rejection rate
forensic
forensic analysis
full-scale exercise
functional exercise
geo-location
goods
hazard
hazard monitoring function
hue
human interpretation
human rights risk analysis, HRRA
identification
identifier
identity
impact
impact analysis
impartiality
improvisation
incident
incident command
incident management system
incident preparedness
incident response
information
infrastructure
inherently dangerous property
inject
inspector
inspector access history
integrated authentication element
integrity
interested party
internal attack
internal audit
international supply chain
interoperability
intrinsic authentication element
invocation
key performance indicator, KPI
less-lethal force
likelihood
logical structure
management
management plan
management system
management system consultancy and/or associated risk assessment
material good
material good life cycle
maximum acceptable outage, MAO
maximum tolerable period of disruption, MTPD
measurement
metadata
minimum business continuity objective, MBCO
mitigation
monitoring
mutual aid agreement
nonconformity
notification
object
object examination function, OEF
objective
observer
off-the-shelf authentication tool
on-line authentication tool
operational information
organization
organization in the supply chain
outsource, verb
overt authentication element
owner
participant
partnering
partnership
people at risk
performance
performance evaluation
personnel
planning
policy
preparedness
prevention
prevention of hazards and threats
preventive action
prioritized activity
private security service provider
probability
procedure
process
product or service
protection
public warning
public warning system
purpose-built authentication tool
record
recovery
recovery point objective, RPO
recovery time objective, RTO
requirement
residual risk
resilience
resource
response plan
response programme
response team
review
rights holder
risk
risk acceptance
risk analysis
risk appetite
risk assessment
risk communication
risk criteria
risk evaluation
risk identification
risk management
risk owner
risk reduction
risk register
risk sharing
risk source
risk tolerance
risk treatment
robustness
scenario
scene location
scope of exercise
scope of service
script
secret
security
security aspect
security cleared
security declaration
security management
security management objective
security management policy
security management programme
security management target
security operation
security operations management
security operations objective
security operations personnel
security operations policy
security operations programme
security personnel
security plan
security sensitive information
security threat scenario
self-defence
semantic interoperability
sensitive information
shelter in place, verb
specifier
stand-alone authentication tool
static metadata
strategic exercise
subcontracting
supply chain
supply chain continuity management, SCCM
syntactic interoperability
tamper evidence
target
target group
test
testing
threat
threat analysis
tier 1 supplier
tier 2 supplier
top management
track and trace
training
trusted query processing function, TQPF
trusted verification function, TVF
undesirable event
unique identifier, UID
upstream
use of force continuum
verification
vulnerability
vulnerable group
warning dissemination function
work environment
World Customs Organization, WCO
History
References
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